Park Avenue Coffee

Park Avenue Coffee is a locally owned St. Louis coffee company that began in Lafayette Square. In 2013 it announced this café on Columbia Avenue as its third location. The company air-roasts its coffee in small batches.

Its signature is gooey butter cake, the St. Louis coffee-cake specialty. Founding siblings Dale Schotte and Marilyn Scull started with their mother’s recipe, still sold as Mom’s Traditional, and the company now makes dozens of flavors, including triple chocolate, white chocolate raspberry and a seasonal red velvet. In 2010 Food Network’s Food Feuds named its version the best gooey butter cake.

The café serves coffee alongside gooey butter cake. Whole cakes, bake-at-home mixes and bagged coffee can also be ordered online for shipping. The company’s other cafés are in Lafayette Square, Cortex and downtown.