Posts Tagged ‘cafegrumpy’

 
October
17th
2011

Fuel for the City That Never Sleeps

“Café Grumpy opened its first coffee shop and roastery at 193 Meserole Avenue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2005 when “it was like tumbleweeds going down the street,” Ms. Bell said. They chose the location because they lived there, but also because the landlord was willing to take a risk on a new food business.
 
“It’s a lot easier now,” having proved to be a viable business, she said, which has enabled Café Grumpy to expand into Manhattan, where it also has a shop in Chelsea.”
 
Read the full article in The New York Times.

October
13th
2011

Take a Book / Leave a Book

The book exchange back in 2008


The book exchange in 2010

We have been keeping a book exchange at the Greenpoint cafe since we opened – never really thinking much about it apart from the fact that we liked reading, sharing books and seeing what other people liked to read.
 
Today’s piece in The New York Times, “A Shelf-Obsessed Writer” by Jami Attenberg gave us a whole new perspective on this special bookshelf. We love the accompanying illustration by James Gulliver Hancock as well.
 
Here are some excerpts:
“The cafe in question, Café Grumpy in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is home to a youthful, charmingly messy clientele who, laptops in tow, come to work there more often than to socialize. The bookcase is located to the right of the bathroom in the rear of the cafe, near a large machine that roasts the coffee beans. All day long the roaster hums, and it smells fantastic.”
 
“I asked her if she ever read any of the books, and she told me she did. She had moved to Brooklyn from another state, and had left all of her books behind. So everything she read came from the shelves in the cafe. She would take the books home, read them, and then bring them back with her when she was done.”

 
Read the full article here.

September
29th
2011

On the Menu: Best of Panama Lot #6 – Don Julian

Best of Panama Lot #6 Don Julian (Gonzalo Rojas, Producer)
Horqueta, Boquete, Panama
Pacamara varietal. Grown at 1650 masl. Washed. Vacuum-sealed at origin.
 
This is the second year in a row that we have had the opportunity to win a lot from the Best of Panama Auction and we are really excited to share this exclusive coffee with you.
 
The Best of Panama Auction is held by the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama – a non-profit organization created to promote Panama’s special coffee production in the world while being committed to “quality and uniqueness paired with social and environmental responsibility.”
 
After being judged by a jury of international coffee professionals, the highest scoring lots are entered into an auction.  The online bidding is open to roasters of all sizes from around the world. After roasting and cupping samples of all of the lots offered, we selected Don Julian as our favorite, so that is the one we bid on. This particular lot is only 550 lbs of green coffee (for those of you who don’t know…coffee loses weight when it is roasted). We were lucky to win the entire lot after some tough bidding!
 
Some of us taste notes of hibiscus, toffee and blood orange in the cup…try this special coffee and let us know what you taste!

September
27th
2011

In Search of The Source at Café Grumpy

“Café Grumpy has ridden the wave, opening three additional locations (including an outpost in Park Slope). But more impressively, they’ve managed to stay way out in front of the quality curve by sourcing their coffee directly from farmers in Central and South America, and by roasting the beans themselves in their Greenpoint shop — both things that very few other shops are able to or interested in doing. They’ve even opened a bakery at their Lower East Side location that’s now supplying baked goods to all four shops.”
 
Read the full write-up on NonaBrooklyn.

September
8th
2011

Staten Island in the House

We had a great time at our Chelsea store working with Vinny Buzzetta and the Staten Island Cakes crew on this fun episode “You Can Take The Boy Out of Staten Island…” Our favorite scene was when the Cake Artist employees protested outside of their store!
 
Check out the full episode here.

September
3rd
2011

Best of Panama Auction Lot #6

Hibiscus, toffee and blood orange.
 
Produced by Gonzalo Rojas. Pacamara varietal grown at 1650 masl. Washed and vacuum-sealed at origin.
 
We are really excited to have won this auction lot and are proud to offer you this Cafe Grumpy exclusive!