Variety opened in Williamsburg in 2008 and added a second café on a sleepy corner of McGolrick Park in Greenpoint the next year. In 2014, to improve and control quality, it began roasting its own coffee in the back of its third café, in Bushwick. Chelsea and the Upper East Side followed in 2016 to 2018, and in 2019 the roasting moved to a stand-alone roastery in East Williamsburg, where it roasts every day.

The sourcing is built around freshness. The menu follows the growing seasons of the different coffee regions, so that only the freshest coffees are on offer. The range runs from washed Sidra and Gesha lots from Karol and Angel Ortega in Colombia, a Kenyan AB and an Oaxacan single origin to the Lucky Shot and Los Duran espressos, the Road House and High Hopes blends, Mean Streets dark roast, the Easy Rider half-caff and the Midnight Cowboy decaf. Equipment and brewing kits are sold alongside the coffee.

There are now ten locations, nine of them cafés. Five are in Brooklyn: Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint, Park Slope and Greenpoint Landing. Chelsea, the Upper East Side and Lower Manhattan are in Manhattan, and Ridgewood is in Queens. The tenth is the East Williamsburg roastery, which receives visitors by appointment only.

Coffee on the shelf

Photograph: Variety Coffee Roasters