Six years is a long time. It’s the summer of 2026 right now, which means we’re a full six years on from the annus horribilis of 2020. But that year keeps cropping up again and again in these Build-Out interviews, as a major catalyst behind the founding of so many new coffee projects and companies. That’s the story here at Others Coffee, which was started by baristas who lost their jobs in the midst of the pandemic tumult. “We decided to do something crazy and start our own business,” remembers Others co-founder Brian Raupp. Turns out it wasn’t that crazy at all: from pop-ups to self-designed packaging to self-taught roasting, Raupp and his co-founder Ashley May turned a sublease inside a flower shop into a thriving brick & mortar in DC’s perpetually buzzy Adams Morgan neighborhood. Now they’re opening up the purpose-built new coffee bar of their dreams, and sharing that story as part of the Build-Outs feature series. Let’s take a closer look.
The 2026 Build-outs of Coffee is presented by DONA, Pacific Barista Series, and La Marzocco.
As told to Sprudge by Brian Raupp.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
Others Coffee was founded by Ashley May and Brian Raupp amid the COVID pandemic. Out of work indefinitely as baristas, we decided to do something crazy and start our own business. We designed the packaging, taught ourselves how to roast, and formally launched the company on National Coffee Day 2020. From online giveaways to pop-ups in and around DC, we slowly built a name for ourselves as purveyors of great drinks and even greater vibes.
One pop-up in particular, a collaboration with local florist, Little Acre Flowers, turned into a sublease (from Little Acre) which then turned into a full-term lease—giving birth to our first brick-and-mortar. For a little over two years, we have been operating our space in Adams Morgan—a lovely, lively neighborhood filled with people from all walks of life. As our reputation has grown, so too has our need to renovate and create the fully functional cafe of our dreams.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
The funny thing about our space is that it was built largely for retail so it has very little of the supporting equipment a typical cafe would have. We’re ecstatic to finally be building a true coffee bar with plumbed-in coffee equipment, undercounter refrigeration, and, get this, our very own ice machine! The running joke is that it was a pop-up that never stopped being a pop-up. We bring in all of our ice, have the tiniest fridge for milk, and our GS3 runs off a five-gallon water jug—a nod to our pop-up roots.
The things that most cafes would take for granted we don’t currently have so anything we add is a major upgrade. The goal is to add functionality to the space for baristas without compromising the DIY charm. Aside from building the new, curvaceous bar, we will be refreshing the seating plan to create a multimodal system that allows for more longer-term seating during the week and more casual seating during the weekend. The cafe is small, 500 square feet, so everything we do has to be intentional.
What’s your approach to coffee?
Our approach to coffee is rather simple—we take it serious but not so serious that it loses its fun. One thing we focus on, outside of making great drinks, is hospitality—how people feel when they enter and experience our space. Our goal is to help visitors to feel at ease, attended to but not rushed, and leave feeling refreshed. We offer free coloring to anyone with the time just to help give them a small mental break during their day.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
Nothing too crazy in this department—we’re really looking forward to having a two-group machine to speed up service in general. We’d love to have a Linea PB or GB5 but will more realistically go for the La Marzocco Linea Classic EE. We’re excited to be adding a second espresso grinder so we can show our decaf espresso folks some love too. We also just bought a Hive Cafe Brewer, which we’re looking forward to having on display in the cafe. As Toddy people since forever, it’s a really nice change of pace.
How is your project considering sustainability?
I think our project considers sustainability in that we’re really only changing what needs to be changed and not doing much beyond that. While this is mostly due to budgetary constraints, it helps us maintain a smaller footprint overall. Less materials leads to less waste. We already offer for-here service, allow people to bring their own cups, and have a refillable coffee tin for people purchasing beans. We also have a partnership with a local urban farm to make use of our coffee grounds for composting.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
We would love, love, love to close in August/September and reopen just in time to celebrate our six-year company anniversary on 9/29/2026. We’re doing our best to move things along and hit that target so our fingers are crossed.
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
We are! We actually met our architect long before he was “our architect” at one of our pop-ups in Georgetown. He liked the coffee and started following us on Instagram. One day, a couple years ago, we needed an architect for a small project so we posted on our story to see if anyone could help and he volunteered to help. So, when it was time to plan the renovation we naturally reached out to him to see if he was interested and he said “yes”! His name is Werner Brito and he’s the best. Werner being the awesome person that he is, connected us with another awesome person, Javid Farazad of Otto Construction, to GC the project. The two have helped us so much along the way and we can’t thank them enough.
Thank you!
No, thank you :)
The 2026 Build-outs of Coffee is presented by DONA, Pacific Barista Series, and La Marzocco.
