Roots Roasting coffee shop and roastery — offering responsibly sourced beans and traditional roasting methods — recently opened in St. Paul’s Mac-Groveland neighborhood.

We chatted with owner Peter Poire-Odegard about his love for coffee.

What’s your favorite coffee memory? I had coffee and espresso starting at a very young age. I remember having this coffee from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi from Dunn Bros., and it really changed my perspective on coffee. It was dark. It was herbaceous. It was funky. It was memorable.

What did you want to be when you grew up? An astronaut.

What was your first job in the industry? I worked at the Kowalski’s on Grand Avenue in high school. I started out bagging groceries, then moved to cashier and then I did dairy stocking.

How did you wind up in the food and beverage business for good? I was following my passion for media democracy at various cable-access stations around the country. The whole time I did home roasting and was diving into coffee deeper and deeper. I was laid off when I was in Portland, Ore., and had the opportunity to get more into coffee and apprentice under Andrea Spella of Spella Caffe. It opened the door for me to be able to do it professionally and commercially. I opened Roots Roasting roastery and coffee shop in late June.

What distinguishes your product? We do a traditional roast. Everything is going to be along the medium spectrum. We’re not going to roast fast. We’re not going to go slow and smokey. We’re going to walk the line in between and approach coffee in a more measured manner. Right now we have five varieties. Our bestseller for beans is our Gut Pleasing Guatemalan coffee. We’re getting ready to do a limited release of a sixth. It’s going to be a Yemeni coffee.

What’s your favorite item on your menu right now? At this moment, I really like a 6-ounce decaf Americano. A runner-up is the sweetened iced oat milk cappuccino.

If you had to eat or drink only five things for the rest of your life, what would they be? Coffee, pizza, burritos, fizzy water and hot sauce.

What’s next? We’re currently building out our wholesale partnerships at the moment. We anticipate half of our business being wholesale by supplying to places such as cafes and grocery stores. Now that the coffee shop is up and running, we’re working on the wholesale part of the business.

Roots Roasting coffee shop and roastery: 1552 St. Clair Ave., St. Paul; 651-401-1414; rootsroasting.com