Why Ancestor?
The legacy of coffeehouses as we know them first emerged in America in the early 17th century. They were popular gathering places to discuss art, philosophy, literature and free thought. We chose the name Ancestor because we want to connect with that legacy, providing a space for the community to share in life over a great cup of coffee.
At Ancestor Coffeehouse and Crêperie, we are passionate about providing exceptional hospitality and customer service and creating high-quality drinks and crêpes. We prefer to source our ingredients locally when possible, and we make all drinks and crêpes to order.
Our coffee beans are freshly roasted by our sister business, Sonder Coffee Company, at our second location in Campbelltown at the Snitz Creek Brewery.
From the entire Ancestor family, thank you for spending time with us and being part of our coffeehouse heritage! We look forward to serving you and invite you to share our space while enjoying community and conversation!
– The Stammel Family
Swatara Coffee Co.
We acquired Swatara Coffee Co. in May of 2023. The opportunity came unexpectedly, and we immediately felt it was the right decision. The Noll’s built a very strong foundation and team, and we feel blessed to be able to continue their legacy. We look forward to serving you at our Jonestown location!
Rick and Ally Stammel
Sonder Coffee Company - Our Story
My dad and I often get asked how we got started roasting, and honestly, it all began with a popcorn popper on our porch. As you can imagine, this was pretty short lived and we had soon destroyed the popcorn popper with overuse.
After that, we decided to move to the big leagues and bought a little 1lb Fresh Roast air roaster. We learned a lot from using the Fresh Roast because we could track temperatures on the computer. You can’t do THAT with a popcorn popper!
A few months later, we were flying to Ponderay, Idaho for our first roasting class at the Diedrich manufacturing site, where we learned to roast on a 10lb roaster. We learned a ton about roasting profiles, coffee origins and tasting notes, and ordered our roaster on site, which arrived in March of 2017.
With the opening date of the coffee shop quickly approaching, we got to roasting and working on the profile for our house blend, which is still our original recipe using Colombian and Nicaraguan.
We have been growing ever since and are learning something new with every roast. Coffee roasting is quite an adventure. Each bean is different, and we enjoy finding the perfect roast in order to serve our guests the best-tasting coffee possible. With the size of our roaster we consider ourselves a small batch artisan coffee roasting business. We chose a smaller roaster so we could control more variables to have a consistent high-quality product.
Come visit us at Ancestor Coffeehouse & Creperie (Campbelltown location) to try the coffee that all started with a popcorn popper.
