Gotham Coffee Roasters

Gotham Coffee Roasters is a New York City coffee shop and roaster, established in 2013 by Chris Calkins, a coffee industry veteran with deep roots in the specialty coffee movement. The company operates from its Brooklyn roastery at 175 Van Dyke Street and runs a flagship café in Manhattan's Flatiron district at 23 W 19th Street. Founded by Chris Calkins, who was mentored by legendary coffee pioneer Alfred Peet (founder of Peet's Coffee and the man who originally roasted coffee for Starbucks), Gotham represents a unique lineage in specialty coffee. Calkins brings decades of experience, having worked with the original Starbucks founders at their Pike Place Market flagship store, co-founded Spinelli Coffee in San Francisco, and previously co-founded Prodigy Coffee in Greenwich Village. Gotham specializes in two distinct offerings: carefully selected single-origin coffees from small lots or single farms that change frequently, and two signature year-round blends - the Brooklyn and Red Hook blends, developed over six years. The company prides itself on its blended coffee model, only purchasing coffees that can stand alone and combining them to create something greater than the sum of their parts. The company's sourcing philosophy emphasizes economic sustainability for coffee producers, favoring partnerships with small companies that buy cherry or parchment coffee and handle their own import/export operations. This streamlined approach provides greater transparency into buying practices and farm-level prices, allowing partners to pay higher premiums through fixed pricing systems. Beyond retail operations, Gotham has extensive wholesale and consultation experience, having helped build out over a dozen cafés in the New York area and developed numerous coffee programs. The company offers comprehensive wholesale services, equipment sales, and coffee subscriptions featuring both year-round blends and rotating single-origin selections. Gotham Coffee Roasters embodies authenticity, lineage, excellence, and community, viewing coffee as part of a larger global connection from growers to consumers. As Calkins notes, "We're part of something bigger than the beans. We're part of a long history."