New Jersey Co-Roasting Business Gridworks Takes Guesswork Out of Coffee

Inside the new Gridworks Coffee roasting facility in Jersey City, New Jersey. All images courtesy of Gridworks Coffee.

A new co-roasting business in New Jersey called Gridworks Coffee is helping startup roasters take the guesswork out of the daily grind, offering access to roasting equipment and professional expertise.

Gridworks founders Craig Genung and George Kyrimes opened the shared roasting, packing and storage facility in Jersey City shortly after the new year, promoting a membership program alongside related services such as private label roasting, toll roasting and consulting.

The 3,500-square-foot facility boasts a 20-kilo Mill City Roasters machine for production roasting, plus a Mill City sample roaster, a cupping area, a packing line with weigh-and-fill machines and sealers, a packaging equipment storage area, and green coffee storage and receiving, including a full loading dock protected from the elements.

“We think there is a real thirst for companies to roast their own coffee, but the barriers in knowledge and access to roasting can seem daunting,” Genung recently told Daily Coffee News. “More than just providing a place to roast, our goal is to pass along our knowledge in roasting, sourcing of coffee, packaging.”

Genung, who owns Jersey City coffee shop Rabble & Lion Coffee, said the business is also offering consultation to clients on coffee shop buildouts and retail operations.

Said Genung, “We really are full-service and can help anyone from all levels of coffee experience get up and running.”

Genung first met Kyrimes, whose background is in construction management, at Rabble & Lion, and the two began to flesh out an idea for a professional roasting incubator business. After developing the plan throughout 2024, the pair wrapped up construction late last year inside an industrial space on Communipaw Avenue.

For Genung — who started roasting in 2017 and selling at farmers markets before expanding the Rabble & Lion brand — the opening of a shared roasting business is something of a full-circle moment.

“I had always roasted out of shared roasteries,” Genung said. “So I feel really fortunate to have built this roastery and have the opportunity to help build the coffee roasting culture in the New Jersey and New York area.”

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