Brooklyn coffee guide: the borough that roasts for the city

Much of the coffee drunk in Manhattan is roasted across the East River. Devoción flies its Colombian coffee into a roastery in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Roasting Company roasts in a former power plant at the Navy Yard, SEY roasts behind its café in Bushwick, and Variety, Partners, Café Grumpy and Driftaway roast in Williamsburg and Greenpoint; Oslo roasts on its own small-batch Probat. Several also run cafés in Manhattan. Hungry Ghost, the exception here, roasts nothing and pours Stumptown, roasted in Red Hook, in ten Brooklyn cafés.

These nine coffee shops in Brooklyn run from Greenpoint and Williamsburg through Bushwick, the Navy Yard and Downtown Brooklyn to Park Slope and Carroll Gardens. For Manhattan, see the New York coffee guide.

SEY Coffee, Bushwick

SEY is a micro-roastery in Bushwick whose café sits inside the roastery, built for “those in need of a little beauty, delicious coffee, and open air”. It buys whatever coffees it finds inspiring, “no matter how high the cost or how small the lot”, and each coffee carries its harvest year, its producer or washing station and its country in its name. In Gedeb, Ethiopia, the Halo Hartume site has become central to its work. The roastery hosts public cuppings of the current coffees. Laptops are limited on weekdays and not allowed at weekends.

Devoción, Williamsburg, Downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo

Colombian-born Steven Sutton launched Devoción in 2006 to produce the freshest coffee he could. Its buying team in Colombia visits farms year-round and buys only coffee in active harvest, which is dry-milled at Devoción’s own facility in Bogotá and flown to its roastery in Brooklyn, so that a coffee can go from origin to cup in ten days. Three of its six New York cafés are in Brooklyn. The Williamsburg flagship takes its pitched roof, skylight and sunlit courtyard from traditional Colombian coffee farms, and its coffee laboratory holds cuppings and public classes in espresso, latte art and pour-over. The Downtown Brooklyn café has an indoor garden of more than 35 species under 18-foot windows, and the Dumbo café hangs three 16-foot planters of Colombian pine on steel chains. An Impact Fund, fed by 1% of every retail bag, backs women producers, the environment and young people in Colombia.

Partners Coffee, Williamsburg

Partners Coffee began in Williamsburg in 2012, started by two childhood friends. Its first home was a flagship roastery, education lab and café, and it has roasted ever since. Partners tries to buy from the same producers year after year: its El Ramo project buys twice a year from a single municipality in Antioquia, Colombia, and in Guatemala it works with the exporter Los Volcanes. Eight mainstay coffees sit beside rotating single origins. The Brooklyn café is in Williamsburg, with the others in the West Village and in Long Island City, Queens. Brew School classes return in 2027 with a new Education Lab.

Brooklyn Roasting Company, the Navy Yard and Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Roasting Company was founded in Williamsburg in 2009 to give New York sustainably sourced coffees “presented to consumers unpretentiously”. Production is in Building 123 of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a power plant built in 1899 on the East River waterfront, where the coffee is roasted on Loring Peregrine and Kestrel roasters and packed in tin steel cans. Ninety per cent of the coffees are Fair Trade certified. Its three cafés are all in Brooklyn: by the Navy Yard, at One Clinton in Brooklyn Heights and in Williamsburg. The roastery hosts tours and group cuppings by arrangement, and the range still includes Java Mocha, its original blend from 2009.

Variety Coffee Roasters, five Brooklyn cafés

Variety opened in Williamsburg in 2008, added a café by McGolrick Park in Greenpoint in 2009 and began roasting in 2014 in the back of its third café, in Bushwick, to improve and control quality. In 2019 the roasting moved to a stand-alone roastery in East Williamsburg, where it roasts every day. Its menu follows the growing seasons of the coffee regions, from washed Sidra and Gesha lots grown by Karol and Angel Ortega in Colombia to the Lucky Shot espresso and the Midnight Cowboy decaf. Five of its nine cafés are in Brooklyn, in Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint, Park Slope and at Greenpoint Landing; the others are in Chelsea, on the Upper East Side, in Lower Manhattan and in Ridgewood, Queens.

Driftaway Coffee, Greenpoint

Driftaway Coffee was started by Anu Menon and Suyog Mody as a freshly roasted coffee subscription after they moved to Brooklyn. They chose to roast the coffee themselves, and the whole operation is roasted and shipped from its Greenpoint roastery. The company is immigrant-owned and woman-led, prioritises women and minority producers, makes public what it pays for green coffee, and in 2026 was named Roast Magazine’s Roaster of the Year in the Macro Roaster category, by its own account the first New York roaster to win. The roastery doubles as a weekend coffee shop and pour-over bar, with a six-seat coffee omakase, a flight brewed in front of the guest with the educators explaining where each coffee came from and who grew it. Omakase seats are booked through Resy; walk-ins order at the counter.

Café Grumpy, Greenpoint and Park Slope

Caroline and Chris founded Café Grumpy in 2005 in Greenpoint, and the first café remains its most spacious. Roasting began in 2009 in the back of that café on a vintage 12 kg Probat; in 2014 the roastery moved next door, where the original machine stands beside a restored 1956 Probat 45 kg and every batch is cupped. The company is independently owned and certified by New York City as a Women-Owned Business Enterprise. Park Slope, open since 2009, is a streamlined espresso bar. The other eight cafés are in Manhattan, from the Lower East Side and Grand Central Terminal to the Financial District, and in Coral Gables, Florida. If you come in grumpy, the promise goes, you leave happy.

Oslo Coffee Roasters, Williamsburg

JD and Kathy Merget left a tiny Chinatown apartment in 2003 to start Oslo Coffee in Williamsburg, wanting to serve the neighbourhood the best coffee the area had to offer. It now roasts its own coffee on a small-batch Probat as Oslo Coffee Roasters, buying from farms with ecologically and socially sustainable practices. The flagship is a large room with changing exhibitions by local artists, and the smaller shop, rebuilt after a fire in 2013, is the Southside’s local. Two more shops are in Manhattan, in Yorkville and the West Village. The retail range is five coffees: the Thor house blend, Odin espresso, Freya dark roast, the Golden Tree blend of Ethiopian and Sumatran beans and a decaf.

Hungry Ghost Coffee, ten Brooklyn cafés

Hungry Ghost was born in Brooklyn in 2012. Its owner, Murat Uyaroglu, grew up with the coffeehouses of Istanbul, took over a small café in Prospect Heights after moving to Brooklyn and opened the first Hungry Ghost there. Every café serves Stumptown coffee, roasted in Red Hook in an exclusive partnership, and the baristas have worked on its Hair Bender blend for more than ten years under the motto “always chasing the perfect shot”. Ten of the twelve cafés are in Brooklyn, in Williamsburg, East Williamsburg, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Carroll Gardens, Clinton Hill and Fort Greene, with cold brew and nitro on tap and pastries from Ovenly, Colson and Lea Bakery.

What you need to know about Brooklyn specialty coffee

Which Brooklyn coffee shops roast their own coffee? SEY roasts behind its Bushwick café, Devoción roasts Colombian coffee in Brooklyn, Partners has roasted in Williamsburg since 2012, Brooklyn Roasting Company roasts at the Navy Yard, Variety roasts every day in East Williamsburg, Driftaway roasts in Greenpoint, Café Grumpy roasts next door to its Greenpoint café and Oslo roasts on its own Probat.

Which roaster does Hungry Ghost serve? Every Hungry Ghost café serves Stumptown Coffee, roasted in Red Hook, Brooklyn, in an exclusive partnership.

Where can you taste coffee with the roasters? SEY hosts public cuppings in its roastery, Devoción’s Williamsburg coffee laboratory runs cuppings and classes, Driftaway’s weekend tasting room serves a six-seat coffee omakase booked through Resy, and Brooklyn Roasting Company offers tours and group cuppings at the Navy Yard by arrangement. Partners’ Brew School returns in 2027.

Can you work on a laptop? SEY limits laptops on weekdays and does not allow them at weekends. Café Grumpy provides Wi-Fi in Greenpoint but not in Park Slope.

Which Brooklyn roasters have cafés in Manhattan? Devoción has three, in NoMad, Flatiron and Midtown; Variety has three, in Chelsea, on the Upper East Side and in Lower Manhattan; Café Grumpy has seven; Oslo has two, in Yorkville and the West Village; and Partners has one in the West Village.