Sey Coffee

Sey Coffee — the name is "yes" spelled backward — was founded by Lance Schnorenberg and Tobin Polk, who first bonded over their shared love of cafe culture while dishwashing at coffee shops in Seattle in their early twenties. The pair later worked together at the Stumptown Coffee Roasters outpost inside the Ace Hotel in Manhattan, one of the cafes that helped spark New York's specialty coffee movement. In 2011, they began roasting on a Probat L12 in a fourth-floor Bushwick loft under the name Lofted Coffee, formally incorporating the business in 2013 before rebranding as Sey and opening the flagship cafe at 18 Grattan Street in the summer of 2017. Within a week of opening, The New York Times profiled the space, calling it "a skylit showcase for a roaster with a following among coffee-heads." Two years later, Food & Wine named Sey the Best Coffee Shop in America after more than two years of on-the-ground research across the country. The cafe occupies a single-story Bushwick warehouse that Tobin Polk — who led the design — transformed into a luminous, Scandinavian-minimal space. Three large skylights flood the interior with natural light, while a roll-up garage door at the entrance opens the cafe to the street in warmer months. The centerpiece is an L-shaped concrete bar poured in a single continuous piece, surrounded by blonde wood built-in benches, scattered stools, and hanging plants that give the deep, airy room an almost greenhouse-like quality. Sprudge memorably described the proportions as "a shoebox crossed with an airplane hangar." Roasting happens in-house at the back of the shop, making the entire process visible and reinforcing the transparency that defines the Sey ethos. Lance Schnorenberg serves as the company's coffee buyer, traveling regularly to origin countries to build direct relationships with producers. Sey's sourcing philosophy centers on clean, expressive, washed single-origin coffees — though they occasionally feature natural or honey-processed lots — separated down to the micro level of a single farm or even a single varietal from a single farm. Colombia is stocked year-round, complemented by rotating offerings from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, and Mexico. The roasting style is Nordic-influenced and deliberately light, designed to be as transparent as possible so that each coffee's inherent character is fully expressed rather than masked by development. As Lance puts it: "I like to think about roasting as trying to be as transparent as possible." Every drink at Sey is presented on a walnut flight board with a slender glass pitcher, a small tasting cup, and a glass of sparkling water as a palate cleanser — a ritualistic approach that encourages guests to engage intentionally with the coffee. The cafe is proudly gratuity-free, a model Sey pioneered in the Brooklyn specialty coffee scene and that multiple other shops have since adopted. Baristas receive competitive hourly wages with performance-based raises, reflecting the founders' belief that hospitality workers should not depend on tips to earn a living wage. Sey has been featured in The New York Times, Sprudge, Eater, TimeOut, Thrillist, Bloomberg, The Infatuation, Robb Report, and Gothamist, and remains one of the most celebrated specialty coffee destinations in the United States.