Breaking today here on Sprudge, Stumptown Coffee Roasters is now open in Cobble Hill. The Portland-based brand launched a new cafe today inside of an 1860’s Brooklyn firehouse, located at 212 Pacific Street. They’ll be celebrating all day long with a series of events, readings, and the occasional impromptu drumline, so if you’re reading this from Brooklyn, get thee to the Hoyt-Schermerhorn stop, served by the A, G, and sometimes C trains.
In the works since late 2017, Stumptown marketing director Mallory Pilcher describes the cafe as “a singular vision driven by several different people” within Stumptown’s national team. “There were a lot of chefs at the table,” Pilcher says, “and we collaborated in this project across departments to achieve a soulful creation.”
To be clear, this is not an imagined interpretation of a pre-Civil War firehouse based on preserved architectural documents—it is an actual 150-year-old building, which first served the neighborhood as a fire department way back in the 19th century, and had most recently functioned as an indoor archery studio. Through the space’s gorgeous white brick foyer, past the flowers, you enter a grand cafe main room with retail wall, coffee bar, and marble floating tables with intricate brass work underneath, evoking a vintage subway car.
Continuing towards the back of the space you pass through a middle corridor, featuring more flowers, a water and magazine station, and finally into the back room, featuring wrap-around banquette seating offset by an original work from renowned Brooklyn artist Marcel Dzama.
This is Stumptown first proper cafe in Brooklyn, following their roasting HQ and tasting room in Red Hook. The space’s design is a fusion of Brooklyn and Portland elements, featuring architecture from NYC’s own TBD Architecture + Design Studio paired with the vision of Portland’s Jessica Helgerson Interior Design, alongside custom design work by Zachary Marvick, also of Portland.
The cafe’s drinks menu includes a standard battery of established Stumptown offerings, including espresso via an eye-catching La Marzocco Linea PB, with customization work by Pantechnicon and hand-drawn art by Melanie Nead. Gear by Curtis and Mazzer help anchor the bar, which also features cold brew taps and pour over drinks, along with a few more Portland favorites like Woodblock Chocolate and Steven Smith Teas. There’s a significantly expanded food offering here in partnership with Lalito, chef Gerardo Gonzalez’s lauded San Diego (by way of Meso-America) restaurant in lower Manhattan. Think carnitas burritos, coconut rice bowls, and chef’s ever-popular banana tahini bread.
A series of community events celebrate today’s launch, including readings from Books are Magic, sweeties from Du’s Donuts, and a performance from Brooklyn United Music & Arts Program. But you’ll be forgiven if you’d like to simply walk in and wander about, picking out little details across the space—the classic brass fittings, antique retail shelves and converted fridges, and white subway tile everywhere. But when queried on her favorite element of the design, Pilcher told us candidly, “The bathrooms!”
Her pick is hard to argue with—these loos feature sweeping arches overhead, and include a host of little design quirks like horsey coat hangers and whimsical peepholes. “New York is so chaotic and insane,” says Pilcher, “and it can feel like the restroom is the only solace you get all day here. These ones are really beautiful and I love them.”
Check out one of those special peephole designs below, then peruse out even more images from inside the new cafe, with photos by Sprudge contributor and Brooklyn resident D. Robert Wolcheck.
Jordan Michelman is a co-founder and editor at Sprudge Media Network. Read more Jordan Michelman on Sprudge.
Photos by D. Robert Wolcheck for Sprudge Media Network.
Disclosure: Stumptown Coffee Roasters is an advertising partner on the Sprudge Media Network.
