Caroline and Chris founded Café Grumpy in 2005 with the dream of serving specialty coffee to everyone in a welcoming environment, and the two of them still run it. The first café opened that year in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and remains the largest, with the roastery next door. The company is certified by New York City as a Women-Owned Business Enterprise, and its motto is that if you come in grumpy, you leave happy.

Roasting began in 2009 in the back of the Greenpoint café on a vintage 12 kg Probat. In 2014 the roastery moved into the building next door, where the original machine now stands beside a restored 1956 Probat 45 kg. Two certified Q graders are on the staff, green coffee is selected from socially and environmentally responsible producers, and every batch is cupped after roasting. The whole range is kosher certified.

Park Slope opened in 2009 as a streamlined espresso bar. The Lower East Side café, from 2011, took over Zelig Blumenthal’s former Judaica shop, where the team exposed the original brick, uncovered two hidden windows and kept the tiled floor. The Grand Central Terminal bar, opened in May 2014, serves brewed coffee by the cup along a standing bar by the windows of the Lexington Passage, in ceramic cups for those who stay. In the Financial District the café occupies the original conference room of the 1930s Stone & Webster offices, restored by architect Cemre Durusoy of OfficeFortyOne. Other Manhattan bars sit in the Fashion District, at Rockefeller Center and inside the Whole Foods Markets at NoMad and Manhattan West, and in 2018 Coral Gables, Florida, became the first café outside New York. Pastries come from local bakeries. Greenpoint and Coral Gables provide Wi-Fi; Park Slope, the Lower East Side, the Fashion District and Grand Central do not.

The coffee range runs to a house blend, Momentum, the Heartbreaker espresso blend, single origins from Colombia, Brazil, Guatemala, Ethiopia and El Salvador and a Swiss Water decaf from Peru, alongside instant coffee, canned cold brew, latte art classes and wholesale and grocery supply.

Locations

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  1. Café Grumpy Lower East Side13 Essex Street, New York, NY 10002Lower East SideOpen in Google Maps
  2. Café Grumpy NoMad63 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016NoMadOpen in Google Maps
  3. Café Grumpy Fashion District200 West 39th Street, New York, NY 10018Garment DistrictOpen in Google Maps
  4. Café Grumpy Grand Central Terminal89 East 42nd Street, Lexington Passage, New York, NY 10017Grand Central TerminalOpen in Google Maps
  5. Café Grumpy Rockefeller Center30 Rockefeller Plaza, Rink Level, New York, NY 10112Rockefeller CenterOpen in Google Maps
  6. Café Grumpy Manhattan West450 West 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001Manhattan WestOpen in Google Maps
  7. Café Grumpy Financial District20 Stone Street, New York, NY 10004Financial DistrictOpen in Google Maps

Elsewhere

  1. Café Grumpy Greenpoint193 Meserole Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11222Greenpoint, BrooklynOpen in Google Maps
  2. Café Grumpy Park Slope383 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215Park Slope, BrooklynOpen in Google Maps
  3. Café Grumpy Coral Gables2516 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, Coral Gables, FL 33134Coral Gables, Coral GablesOpen in Google Maps

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Café Grumpy