I'll definitely try their coffee (there's a store opening near my office), but I'll admit I'm skeptical about their model. That whole "we started as a little coffee cart in Williamsburg" bit hides the huge influx of venture capital to the company and its founding by tech guys... Your local coffee shop this is not: It’s Not Just You — Blank Street Coffee Is Suddenly Inescapable https://nyti.ms/3Rmd1SO

Meh. It's a coffee chain owned by two mid to late 20s rich finance bros.

Avoid and go local.

Yeah it’s a hard pass for me.

Depends on their coffee quality and hours.

A lot of ‘local’ places aren’t open long enough or make poor quality drinks. Hard to find the unicorn with both.

I’ll support anything that makes the DC coffee scene less bad.

*Edit: Looks like their hours will be 7am-4pm. So a no-go for people looking for an evening coffee, but nice that it’s open before 8.

Oh wow they expanded really fast! I remember going to the little electric coffee carts in McCarren Park it was great. Then the cart was there only on the weekends and I saw a new store and then suddenly stores all over NYC. So this explains it was a bit of mystery.

Where do they source their beans? Is it third wave coffee? This is extremely important.

I’d rather support a local coffee shop that either roasts their own beans or sources it with non slave labor beans.

With their rapid expansion (to even London), this is definitely a VC backed chain which do not give a shit about the quality of product, only for profits (and then an eventual go public).

While automated espresso machines don’t seem like a good indicator for the best quality, and no mention of sourcing is probably a concern, this is an interesting line from their website

> That’s why we pay our baristas a guaranteed minimum of $23 per hour

Having never had the coffee, I’m guessing the model is quick, cheap, and decent, not the most exquisite pour over you’ve ever had.

From Beirut + Dubai .