BROOKLYN ROASTING COMPANY with Cherry
BROOKLYN ROASTING COMPANY
with Cherry
The first coffee connection I made in Osaka was Brooklyn Roasting Company fittingly located just across one of the many bridges in town and perched with a beautiful waterside view in Kitahama. If you’ve ever made it to Dumbo in New York, you can use your imagination to draw the parallel. Regardless, Cherry took the time to give me some of the details of how they came to be in that space, their ethos, and explained some of the collaborations they have going on.
Cherry explained that the owner of Osaka’s Brooklyn Roasting has owned several shops for surfing attire, but upon visiting New York years ago, was inspired to bring good coffee back to Japan, back to Osaka.
“The owner wanted to bring an American style of café here because the Japanese style can be a bit regimented.”
With the collaboration of a passion for coffee, an interior designer on the second floor, and a local florist, Brooklyn’s flagship shop opened its doors 3 years ago. Though the building has actually been around for quite some time now, the opening of the café came as a part of the bigger plan to refurbish the entire thing. By establishing co-working spaces, and allowing for other businesses such as yoga and design studios, there has been almost a 200% increase in residential units as well. A true testament to how coffee can be utilized to help facilitate community collaborations.
The café used to ship all of its roasts from Brooklyn, but in recognizing they were better off to roast locally, they now have up to 14 different roasts on hand at any given time, all churned up at their newest location on the other side of town. In additional efforts to be environmentally sustainable, they try to use biodegradable cups as much as possible.
“Here in Japan it’s a bit harder [to be sustainable] than in Brooklyn, but we try to follow suit as best as we can. We also have direct trade with some of our roasts, and we really focus on those relationships.”
Cherry mentioned that they also retail Brooklyn’s own Mast Brothers Chocolate, especially during Valentines Day, as well as share the space with the plants and flowers shop, Bois de Gui. Coffee, chocolate, plants — yet another trifecta.
