Brooklyn Roasting Company

Brooklyn Roasting Company was founded in 2009 by Jim Munson, who spent over a decade as a vice president and partner at Brooklyn Brewery in the 1990s before serving seven years as a VP at Dallis Bros. Coffee. Munson envisioned creating a "Brooklyn Brewery-like, newfangled entrepreneurial business based in coffee that focused on sustainability" — and that founding ethos has shaped every aspect of the company since. The Williamsburg cafe at 543 Metropolitan Avenue occupies the former storefront of Klenosky Paint, a longtime neighborhood business, bringing specialty coffee to a stretch of Metropolitan Avenue that has become one of the area's most vibrant corridors. The company's production headquarters sits at Building 123 in the Brooklyn Navy Yard — a striking industrial structure originally built in 1899 as a powerplant, with sixty-foot ceilings and brick walls two feet thick. It was the first LEED-certified building in the Navy Yard and houses state-of-the-art commercial roasting, packing, and quality control departments on the East River waterfront. Sustainability is woven into every layer of the operation. Brooklyn Roasting Company roasts on fuel-efficient Loring Peregrine and Kestrel roasters, uses sustainable packaging including tin steel cans and recyclable wholesale delivery totes, and sources ninety percent of its coffees as Fair Trade certified through a direct partnership with Fair Trade USA. The company services hundreds of high-end wholesale accounts across the five boroughs, including notable clients like WNYC and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Brooklyn Roasting Company has been covered by Brownstoner, Crain's New York Business, amNewYork, and The Bridge BK, and remains one of the borough's most established homegrown coffee roasting operations.