Inside the new La Coop Coffee shop and roastery in Washington D.C. Photo by Karina Carvalho, courtesy of La Coop.
Washington D.C.-based La Coop Coffee has a homecoming for the holidays with the opening of its flagship roastery cafe in the Manor Park neighborhood, just blocks away from its first brick-and-mortar cafe.
While the original location closed last year due to a development dispute, the expansive and colorful new digs continue to promote the owners’ Guatemalan roots while boosting production space.
Photo by Karina Carvalho, courtesy of La Coop.
“Our [new] shop is pretty much the same neighborhood, just a busier corner,” La Coop Coffee Founder Juan Luis Salazar Cano told Daily Coffee News. “We see many of our old customers as well as many new faces in the shop every day, which makes us happy, seeing them happy.”
Central to the new 2,100-square-foot facility is an expanded roastery, with a Diedrich IR5 machine. Filled with plants and pallets of coffee, the work space catches rays through a generous skylight and operates in full view of customers.
The rest of the space maintains a dazzling design led by La Coop Coffee co-owner and Cano’s wife, Stefanie Fabrico. Beneath the original 12-foot-high tin ceiling, Fabrico applied a variety of patterns, colors and textures that coordinate for a vivid nod to the landscapes, fashions and textiles of Guatemala.
Photo by Karina Carvalho, courtesy of La Coop.
“Many of the women who use traditional dress in Guatemala use a different pattern on their tops, skirts and belts, and sometimes in their hair, too, but it all combines beautifully,” Cano told Daily Coffee News. “Inspired by these patterns of Guatemala and our own black and white branding elements, Stefanie integrated various tropical, floral and modern patterns.”
As customers pass through the shop’s salvaged wooden doors, the newly salvaged wood floor exudes an intentional homeyness, while also reflecting the company’s commitment to sustainable materials.
The new space has more seating than previous cafes, including 2-top tables throughout, as well as a lounge area with faux fireplace and bookcases filled with a rainbow ombré of vintage books.
Dark green board and batten trim and gold dome pendant lighting in the new shop correspond to matching elements in La Coop’s Arlington, Virginia, location, which opened last year. Plant-filled outdoor space offers more seating and room for events and markets.
Photo by Karina Carvalho, courtesy of La Coop.
“We also have a new kids’ corner, a sign that we had a child between our first shop and this one,” said Cano. “We have a little toy barista and market setup for the kids.”
Shortly after opening in Arlington, the company began to pack up its original D.C. cafe on 1st Street. The voluntary exit followed an unresolvable dispute with that property’s landlord dating back to La Coop’s first weeks in business in 2020, when the landlord announced plans to demolish both the cafe’s building to make way for a 46-unit apartment complex.
“In the end, we ended up vacating the space, because we wanted peace of mind,” said Cano. “The dispute with the landlord was interfering with our growth and we wanted to move on.”
Photo by Karina Carvalho, courtesy of La Coop.
By the time the final cups were served, work was already underway on the new location, where the bar now includes a 3-group Victoria Arduino Eagle One espresso machine paired with Nuova Simonelli Mythos Clima Pro grinders and a PuqPress autotamper. A Fetco batch brewer generates hot drip, while a Brood system dispenses still and nitro cold brew.
Down the bar from the coffee station, two turbo chef ovens support a menu of sandwiches made with fresh ingredients, while a pastry case is stocked daily.
Expansion has also occurred on the company’s other home front, in Guatemala, where Cano’s brothers Adolfo and Estuardo Salazar now run a La Coop roastery in Unión Cantinil, Huehuetenango. The company maintains an association with the Asociacion de Caficultores de Union Cantinil (ASOCUC) producer group, which was founded by Cano in 2006.
Photo by Karina Carvalho, courtesy of La Coop.
“They are helping build up a younger generation of coffee producers in Union Cantinil and are experimenting with new varieties and post-harvest processes, such as honeys and naturals,” said Cano. “I look forward to seeing what else they are able to do and how they are able to expand the group of farmers we source from. This connection for me, back home to them and what they’re doing, makes this truly a family business from the beginning of the value chain to the end.”
La Coop Coffee is located at 500 Kennedy St NW, Washington D.C. Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here.
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Howard Bryman
Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
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