Local (Philadelphia) developer buys anti-Starbucks Saxbys

By Henry J. Holcomb
Inquirer Staff Writer

Joseph Grasso, the Philadelphia real estate and business developer, is jumping into the red-hot gourmet-coffee boom with a milder, homier alternative to Starbucks.

His firm, Walnut Street Capital, completed the purchase last week of Atlanta-based Saxbys Coffee Worldwide L.L.C. for an undisclosed price.

Saxbys headquarters is moving to the Curtis Center, across from Independence Hall. Grasso and partners own the former headquarters of the Curtis magazine empire. He is building a mock-up coffee shop there, where dozens of managers and potential franchise owners will soon be trained each month.

Saxbys' move to Philadelphia gives the city its second gourmet-coffee headquarters. In May, Massimo Taurisano, another veteran of the Philadelphia-area real estate and construction industries, and his wife, Carrie Lapp, bought the Philadelphia Coffee Co.

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