It’s hot outside, y’all. And if you want to stop in to grab a coffee at a nearby cafe while taking your four-legged friend on a stroll, what are you to do? If it’s too hot for you, it’s too hot for them. Luckily, for the denizens of Brooklyn at least, there’s an all-new dog-friendly cafe that wholeheartedly welcomes in your furry friends.
Boris & Horton, the self-described “New York’s first dog friendly cafe,” has just opened a new location in the Williamsburg neighborhood. Their second cafe, B&H is serving up coffee from nearby roaster Variety and offers a caffeinated respite from the heat for human and dog alike. So grab a latte with your lhasa apso, a cappuccino with your corgi, a doppio with your doberman, or even a mocha with your mutt. Boris & Horton welcomes each and every one.
The 2023 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by DONA. The 2023 Build-Outs of Coffee is sponsored by La Marzocco, Pacific Barista Series, Acaia, and Marco Beverage Systems.
As told to Sprudge by Logan Mikhly.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
We’re New York’s first dog friendly cafe and we just opened our second location in Williamsburg.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
We build out our spaces to be 100% DOH compliant so that customers can eat and drink alongside their pets. There’s a “cafe side” and a “dog side” and dogs can roam freely on the dog side while customers enjoy Variety Coffee and a full food menu.
What’s your approach to coffee?
We see ourselves as quietly excellent. We strive to bring third wave principles and quality to a customer base whose coffee preferences span from “bodega coffee, light and sweet” to carbonic maceration. In order to achieve this, we focus on getting the little things right: having kick-ass drip and a beautiful espresso that shines alone and provides a foundation for milk drinks. Then we take these fundamental products and find ways to present them to our customers that don’t feel pretentious or intimidating. That means chatting as much or as little as a customer would like about what’s in their cup today, and only bringing up that we’ve changed our single origin drip when asked about it. We do our best to honor the labor and dedication that it took to get the coffee from the soil to our cups by approaching each bean as a new endeavor, and we love the dual challenge of maximizing the potential of every coffee we serve while keeping our menu decidedly approachable.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
We’ve got the Rolls Royce of espresso machines, the La Marzocco GB5 S3 AV with scales and are excited to be brewing and kegging our own cold brew shortly. We’ve got some guest coffee features from local roasters in the pipeline that we’ll shout out on our Instagram as they get closer. Stay Tuned!!!
How is your project considering sustainability?
We take extra care to avoid waste and be parsimonious in our recipes. Specifically for us, this has meant finding a nice equilibrium between “turbo shots” and traditional espresso to reduce our coffee usage by lowering our dose. Additionally, we’re aiming to be completely single-use-plastic-free by the end of our first full month.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
It’s open
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
Sure, Cocozza Group, E.G Designs, and Jen Levy Creative
Thank you!
The 2023 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by DONA. The 2023 Build-Outs of Coffee is sponsored by La Marzocco, Pacific Barista Series, Acaia, and Marco Beverage Systems.
