Well-known Olympia coffee business changes its name, downtown location

The end of the year and the new year have brought a lot of change to a business that used to be known as Batfdorf & Bronson. The result is a new name and location in downtown Olympia.

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At the end of the year, Batdorf & Bronson, which continues to operate a coffee roastery near the Port of Olympia, changed its name to Dancing Goats Coffee. The business previously operated under both brands, but finally decided to streamline its operation under one name, President and COO Dave Wasson told The Olympian this week.

“It’s always been difficult to have two brands,” he said, adding that customers were sometimes confused by Batdorf & Bronson over the years, with some thinking it was a law firm.  “People found it easier to remember Dancing Goats,” Wasson said.  The other big change was moving its flagship store on Capitol Way — a more than 3,000-square-foot location in the middle of the block that the business occupied for 20 years — to the corner of Legion Way and Capitol Way, where Starbucks was the most recent previous tenant.

Dancing Goats Coffee opened on that corner April 5.

The costs of operating a 1,400-square-foot coffee shop are lower than the previous location, which had become quite expensive, Wasson said. At one time, the business paid $2,800 per month for the Capitol Way space. Now, it’s three times that cost, he said. Over the past 20 years, downtown has changed, too. State offices moved out of downtown years ago, then the pandemic hit, and then competition picked up. Wasson estimates there now are 13-14 downtown coffee shops. Still, he wanted to stay downtown and he wants to continue to support downtown, he said.

The new location has great light, is across from the Sylvester Park, and Wasson feels the Legion Way at Capitol Way intersection is the gateway to downtown. “It’s a great place for Dancing Goats,” he said.

Elsewhere, Dancing Goats closed a coffee shop location at Point Ruston in Pierce County at the end of the year (not enough business, Wasson said), but did open a new location in downtown Tacoma near the University of Washington campus.

The business, too, continues to operate four coffee shops and a roastery in Atlanta, Georgia. Overall, the company employs 110 people, he said.

ROLF BOONE 360-754-5403 Rolf has worked at The Olympian since August 2005. He covers breaking news, the city of Lacey and business for the paper. Rolf graduated from The Evergreen State College in 1990.

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