JD and Kathy Merget moved out of a tiny Chinatown apartment in 2003 to start a small coffee business in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At the time they wanted to serve the neighbourhood the best coffee the area had to offer. Oslo now roasts its own coffee on a small-batch Probat as Oslo Coffee Roasters, under the line “Small craft artisan roasters. Community driven. Always fresh.”

The beans come from farms using ecologically and socially sustainable practices that provide a fair living for their workers, and the aim in the shops is to prepare each espresso drink or cold-brewed single-origin iced coffee with the same care that went into the roasting. The mission covers staff training and support, buying from fellow local businesses and donating to local causes.

Two shops are in Williamsburg. The flagship is a large room for gathering or stretching out alone, with regularly changing exhibitions by local artists. The smaller Southside shop, rebuilt after a fire in 2013, serves as a local for the neighbourhood. In Manhattan, the Yorkville shop sits on a quiet tree-lined block of the Upper East Side, and the other shop is in the West Village.

The retail range is short: Thor House Blend, Odin Espresso, Freya Dark Roast, Golden Tree Blend of Ethiopian and Sumatran beans, and a decaf house blend, each sold whole or in a dozen grinds, with a subscription and wholesale supply.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Oslo Coffee Roasters