Cafe Grumpy to Open Inside Grand Central Station

Photo by Brian Snelson

Greenpoint-based roaster and retailer Cafe Grumpy, which already has five neighborhood outposts in New York, is taking over a space in the East terminal of Grand Central station, when the lease for the existing Starbucks there runs out in May.

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The transition from the global chain to the local independent — which has had its profile raised because of its prominence in the HBO series Girls — is part of a larger citywide effort to promote local brands and contractors, and leases for other chain stores within the station will not be renewed. (Starbucks currently has another location in the West terminal.)

“This is a huge and exciting endeavor for us as an independent business,” Cafe Grumpy owner Caroline Bell told CNN last week.

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New York is one of the only cities that tracks the numbers of local cafes within its borders, last year releasing data showing that independent and small chain shops for the first time in the modern era outnumbered the city’s two dominant chains, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.