Variety’s Coffee Roasters’ 10th location in Greenpoint Landing. All images courtesy of Variety Coffee Roasters.
New York City’s Variety Coffee Roasters has reached the 10-shop milestone with a recent opening in Greenpoint, adding to existing locations across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.
Opened in June at 190 Franklin St. inside the landmark Astral building, the newest cafe continues an 18-year run of slow-but-steady growth for the Brooklyn-born company.
Founder Gavin Compton originally hoped to open a restaurant, but launched Variety’s first cafe in Williamsburg in 2008 as a more accessible entry into hospitality. Compton has also become an owner or partner in restaurants including Three Decker Diner, Blue Collar, Ops and Leo.
“Unpretentious, warm and fun,” is how Compton described Variety’s enduring approach to service. “We train our baristas to be experts in coffee, but egoless in delivery, so that every single person who comes through the door feels comfortable and excited to be there,” he said.
Variety worked with longtime collaborator Kursten Bracchi, who has designed six of the company’s cafes, on the new Greenpoint space.
“We started with post-war Italian cafes as inspiration, allowing the existing space to help dictate the eventual design,” Compton said. “Our contractor who oversaw the build, Ky, is also an original Variety cast member, and helped perfect a lot of the details that make the Franklin cafe as lovely as we think it is.”
The cafe keeps the menu relatively simple, with espresso drinks, brewed coffee, cold brew and tea alongside pastries.
Said Compton, “We try to keep everything we offer both simple and good, so the choices are always easy for our customers.”
Variety’s coffee program continues to lean heavily on washed-process coffees from throughout Latin America, Ethiopia and Kenya. Among Variety’s current seasonal offerings are coffees from Costa Rica’s Finca La Toboba, including two red-honey-process coffees. The menu also includes a certified-organic washed-process coffee from Ethiopia’s Duromina cooperative.
Coffees are roasted at Variety’s East Williamsburg roastery on a 70-kilogram Loring machine, with a 15-kilogram Loring used for smaller batches. The roasting operation is overseen by director of coffee Patrick Grzelewski and head roaster Allin Cogen. The company has been roasting in East Williamsburg since 2019 after initially roasting inside its Bushwick cafe beginning in 2014.
At the Greenpoint Landing cafe, Mahlkönig E80W GBS and E65T GBS espresso grinders support a hand-painted three-group La Marzocco Linea PB ABR espresso machine. A Mahlkönig Guatemala shop grinder handles coffee for batch brewing and cold brew, with Fetco equipment used for batch brews.
While the company’s coffee and beverage offerings continue to reflect the concept of variety, consistency of quality across the cafes has become one of Variety’s hallmarks.
The Variety Coffee roastery.
“Variety Coffee just reached its 18th year, and it feels very special to have established both a retail and wholesale presence in our hometown of NYC,” Compton said. “We’re very grateful to still be part of the specialty coffee and hospitality communities in this singular city that we love.”
Variety Coffee Roasters’ new shop is located at 190 Franklin St. in Brooklyn.
Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter.
Daria Toptygina
Daria Toptygina is a freelance writer, avid coffee lover and social media manager of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.
