Principles GI Coffee House

Principles GI is a queer-owned, bike-culture-centric, activist-friendly community coffee house on 9th Street near the Gowanus border. Founder Katie Bishop has built a space that doubles as a cycling community hub (the GI stands for the cycling term "general intermediate") and a serious specialty cafe — and the dual identity has earned it a loyal following that crosses both worlds. The coffee program runs on rotating beans from small specialty roasters: Necessary Coffee, Luminous, Brandywine, and others. The shop has a pay-what-you-can option alongside standard pricing, reflecting the activist orientation built into the business model. Pastries and a small food menu round things out. A genuinely distinctive Park Slope cafe that resists easy categorization.