Good Trouble is Brewing at Its New Roastery in Arlington, Virginia

At the new Good Trouble Roasters cafe and roastery in Arlington, Virginia. All images courtesy of Good Trouble Roasters.

Coffee isn’t all that’s brewing at Good Trouble Roasters, a new roastery cafe that opened in Arlington, Virginia, in late October, but it does form the heart of the business.

Head-turning murals, multicolored seating and green walls reflect the creative spirit of the coffee company, whose roasting operations will become another in-house spectacle once its 3-kilogram-capacity Air-Motion Roasters machine gets approval from the county.

“It’s very cool, it’s really fun to look at, so we put it in the front window so people can see where the beans are coming from,” Good Trouble Owner Mike Greiner said of the machine. “I want to educate people. I want to bring people into what coffee can be and the exciting things that it can do.”

As the coffee business awaits approval, green coffees purchased by Greiner are stored and toll-roasted to his specifications by Beanetics Coffee in nearby Annandale.

On the 20-foot Corian-topped coffee bar in Arlington’s Cherrydale neighborhood, baristas work with a refurbished La Marzocco Linea espresso machine and Fetco batch brewer, serving drinks in ceramics made by Brooklyn-based artist Jess Kostelnick, a longtime friend of Greiner’s who also created the shop’s murals.

“Jess was very taken aback when I said, ‘do whatever you want.’ She was expecting me to come to her with specificity of the kind of art that I wanted, but it was truly like, ‘I want you to fly. I want you to do what makes you happy,'” Greiner said. “She was extremely thrilled with how it turned out, as am I. It’s pure artistry. It is weird, it’s big, it’s bold and I love it.”

Greiner’s approach to coffee similarly favors bold, distinctive flavors that he seeks to highlight through lighter roasting and limited reliance on sugary syrups.

“We are definitely into the lighter roast profiles and want to highlight the bean characteristics without roasting them too far,” Greiner said. “I am sensitive, though, to the fact that that is not the prevailing palate. So we’re also blending in some more roasted beans for our espresso, just trying to balance the profiles while highlighting some really exciting single-source-origin beans.”

Born and raised in New Mexico, Greiner started a salsa company called Black Market Salsa in 2008 shortly before meeting the woman who would become his wife, Jen Warren. While Warren’s military career moved the couple frequently throughout the United States, one of their favorite stretches was in Arlington, where they relocated again in 2023 before Warren retired as an Air Force colonel.

Today, Good Trouble sells Black Market Salsa by the jar, allowing customers to eat some with tortilla chips in the shop and take the remainder home.

“We’re not going to serve you a small cup of salsa with a plate of chips. We’re going to sell you the whole jar and we’ll help partition it out for you if you want, but I want that jar to go home with you,” Greiner said. “I want that to be in your fridge because it goes great on everything, from eggs in the morning to tacos at night.”

Pastries from local Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe and sandwiches from The Italian Store round out the food menu. Good Trouble also plans to add beer and wine, pending licensing.

With a name referencing the late congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis’s call to get into “good trouble,” Good Trouble Roasters intends to serve the community in multiple ways.

“A coffee shop is a service to the community, and I want to be reflective of that,” Greiner said. “Once we have our feet under us, we’re going to be working with local nonprofits and charitable causes, and just embrace the spirit of all of what John Lewis was, in Good Trouble.”

Beyond getting the onsite roastery up and running, Greiner said additional plans include public educational events intended to build interest in higher-quality coffee.

“I understand your morning cup of joe is one thing, but to explore coffee and how incredible it can be is a lot of fun,” said Greiner. “Hopefully as our shop matures and we start doing small classes, tastings and stuff like that, we can expand people’s palates and minds and how they view coffee.”

Good Trouble Roasters is located at 3800 Langston Blvd. in Arlington, Virginia.

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