About Cortona Cafe

What is Cortona?

Our name comes from a beautiful hillside town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Every year a multi-disciplinary conference is held in Cortona where artists, philosophers, and scientists gather from around the world to discuss important cultural issues.

How did Cortona Cafe get started?

After living in the Central District for a couple of years and developing a heart for the community, Will Little began working with local coffee shop owner Brian Wells (of Tougo Coffee Co) to develop the coffee program and community-building philosophy of the new business. On January 1st, 2011, they donated the cafe to a NonProfit, Cortona Community, overseen by Jason & Foxy Davison and their community Board.

Community & Diversity

The Central District is a diverse community. Our goal at Cortona is to provide not only good coffee, beer & wine, waffles, etc..., but also a platform and meeting space for people of different cultures to discuss, teach, listen, learn, and build friendships. Our mezzanine level is freely available for any organizations or individuals interested in holding community seminars, classes, clubs, discussions, etc...

Good Coffee - Excellent Baristas

We chose Herkimer Coffee as our roaster because of their commitment to excellent coffee, their collaborative spirit, and their respect for coffee farmers around the world. We are very excited to be featuring in our cafe their single-origin Brazilian coffee from the highlands of Carmo de Minas.

What is the story behind the logo?

Will and his three-year old son Charlie walked around the neighborhood with artist paper and a marker in early Fall 2009 and talked to neighbors about the upcoming coffee shop and asked them to write the word "Cortona." The words were then scanned and the "C"s were overlaid (with a bit of artistic license) to produce the logo.