Wanderlust Coffee Turns a Corner with Second Indiana Cafe

Wanderlust Coffee opened a second cafe in West Lafayette, Indiana near Purdue Research Park. The 1,800-square-foot space includes a smaller lending library and a largely familiar menu of drinks, pastries, and bagels. A large mural of a barista dominates the high-ceilinged room, but the interior design takes a different direction. The cafe aims for a grown-up, refined feel without becoming overly serious. A bar built to resemble a heavy concrete block anchors the space, paired with a La Marzocco GB5 with custom carmine-red accents. Black steel tables, herringbone wood seating, plants, warm lighting, and organic textures balance brutalist influence with comfort. The roasting setup has evolved since the first location.

"Near the Purdue Research Park, the new 1,800-square-foot cafe offers a smaller version of the original lending library, while the menu of drinks, pastries and bagels is largely the same. As at the first shop, a large mural of a barista at work towers over the new shop's high-ceilinged space. Yet in its fundamental design, the new shop wanders down a different path."

""It feels more grown-up and more refined, but not in a way that feels too serious," Wanderlust Coffee Founder Walt Cornelius told Daily Coffee News. "The new shop feels like a natural next step from the original. They are different in style and scale, but they share the same goal, to make people feel comfortable, cared for and excited about the coffee.""

"Cornelius, who hand-built the bar and other fixtures in the first cafe, said the second shop began with a bar designed to feel like a large, heavy block of concrete anchoring the room. A La Marzocco GB5 with custom carmine-red accents is matched by pops of color throughout the space. Locally made black steel tables add another raw, industrial note, balanced by herringbone wood seating, plants, warm lighting and other organic textures."

""For me, the goal was to push the edge of a brutalist-inspired cafe without letting it feel cold or uninviting," Cornelius said. "The result is a space that feels modern and design-forward, but still comfortable - a place where the coffee, the bar, and the room all feel connected.""

Read at Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine