Rival Bros Coffee is finally stepping outside Philadelphia city limits, and the Main Line is where it's planting its flag. The 15-year-old roaster has signed a lease for a cafe at the Eagle Village Shops in Wayne, marking its first expansion beyond Philadelphia proper since opening its doors.
According to Patch, the new cafe will occupy Suite 210 at 503 W Lancaster Ave and is expected to open in the spring. Founded in 2011, Rival Bros has built its reputation on five cafes scattered across Philadelphia, and the Wayne location will be its first outside the city. In a statement shared with the outlet, the company said it's “looking forward to putting down roots, meeting our new neighbors, and becoming part of the Wayne community.”
A Decade and a Half of Roasting in Frankford
Rival Bros was started by former chef Jonathan Adams and La Colombe veteran Damien Pileggi, as detailed by PhillyVoice. The company roasts its beans daily at a roastery in Philadelphia's Frankford section, and its cafes serve up traditional drip coffee, a Chemex bar and a range of espresso drinks, per the company's own site.
Per Philadelphia Business Journal, most of that growth has come over just the last four years, a pace that lines up with the company's recent fundraising push. The Philadelphia Business Journal previously reported that Rival Bros Coffee Roasters is nearing a $4 million fundraising goal, and that the chain has tripled its physical footprint over the last three years, including opening two new cafes in a single year.
Main Line Has Become a Magnet for City Brands
Wayne's newest coffee bar joins a growing list of Philadelphia-rooted businesses that have found their way to the suburbs in recent years. The pattern isn't new: a Wharton marketing professor told Philadelphia Magazine that the pandemic accelerated the shift, noting that the rise of e-commerce and “buy online, pick up in store” shopping worked to the advantage of neighborhood shopping centers close to where people actually live.
Other familiar names have already made the same move. La Colombe Coffee Roasters added a Bryn Mawr location to its four city coffee shops back in 2016, while Di Bruno Bros. — a fixture in the Ardmore Farmers Market since 2011 — opened a Wayne location in 2022. HipCityVeg landed in Ardmore in 2019, and Boyds eventually set up a permanent Wayne store after testing the waters with a temporary shop at Suburban Square in the fall of 2020, as chronicled by Philadelphia Magazine.
For now, Main Line coffee drinkers will have to wait for spring to get their first taste of Rival Bros outside the city. The exact opening date hasn't been announced, but the Wayne cafe represents a notable milestone for a company that spent its first decade and a half entirely within Philadelphia's borders.
