It’s Complicated: NYT On Pulley Collective, An Open Relationship Roaster Model

Both Joe and Ninth Street Espresso have joined the Pulley Collective, a new coffee-roasting plant on the Brooklyn waterfront that members rent out by the half-day. It is less like a community kitchen or a woodworking cooperative than the Electric Lady Studios of coffee: a tricked-out operation that takes care of all the details.

The Pulley Collective is on the ground floor of a 19th-century warehouse in Red Hook, in a 6,500-square-foot space that looks as if it could be a nightclub or a beer hall. There are two coffee roasters, a vintage Deidrich with a cast-iron drum and a new Loring SmartRoast, a technologically advanced roaster with a list price of $135,000. There is a quality-control laboratory and a cupping area. A shipping container inside the warehouse is being converted into a barista classroom.