Opening Hours
Contact
Monday- Friday 10am- 6pm
Saturday- 12am-5pm
-
Closed Sundays
and Public Holidays
123-456-7890
General Information
Admission is always free
Disabled Ramp Access
Directions
Why Catalyst?
Coffeehouses originated in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century with the first one opening in Istanbul in 1555. The buzz spread in the 17th century, and is said to have first appeared in Europe in 1632 in Livorno, founded by a Jewish merchant, or later in 1640, in Venice.
Ever since that first day in 1555, artists, writers, thinkers, doer, revolutionaries, and people who need a community space to gather, from England’s “penny universities” to Boston’s Green Dragon Tavern, Gertrude Stein and Picasso’s regular Paris coffeehouse Les Deaux Magot to the Indian Coffeehouse Movement, and beatnik cafes to The Women’s Coffeehouse Collective in Greenwich Village, coffeehouses have been those meeting places in which its ongoings, events and conversations have become catalysts for change, for movements, for thoughtful action.
For Good Coffee
We take pride in handcrafting exceptionally delicious beverages for the enjoyment of our community. Our menu features a carefully curated rotation of coffee, tea and espresso drinks from select local and occasionally a featured national roaster to bring St. Louis to the coffee world and the coffee world to St. Louis.
Coffee for Good
Since 2013, Art Saint Louis has welcomed coffee lovers, the art community and greater St. Louis area residents and visitors to gather in downtown St. Louis over coffee, tea and year-round visual art programming, exclusively featuring the work of regional (meaning within a 200-mile radius of downtown St. Louis) artists .
First through a boutique collaboration with Christopher Ruess and Mississippi Mud Coffee Roasters, we recognized the organic connection between coffee and art. As Chris Ruess says (a local painter himself), “Savoring a cup of coffee is not unlike enjoying a work of art. You have to slow down and live with it a little.”
In 2016 Art Saint Louis purchased the coffeehouse operation and made some changes, recognizing the deep connection between community and historically, the coffeehouse as a catalyst for so much, from intellectual conversations and a meeting place for performance art, for a date, to meet a neighbor, or a place to quietly sit in cozy comfort, or a place to plan and effect change. Catalyst Coffee Bar (CCB) was born.
Now owned and operated by and as a component of Art Saint Louis, our mission is to create a vibrant space in which people from all walks of life can discover and enjoy an ensemble of specialty coffee and local art. Every drink made, every dollar spent at our CCB supports the work of St. Louis artists and our organization’s original artistic programming, exhibitions and community that we’ve been building for nearly four decades.
Non-profits and groups who we’ve partnered with or who hold meetings and conversations to effect change:
Terrain