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Variety Café, owned by all-around rad dude Gavin Compton, had its soft opening this past weekend at their new Bushwick location on 146 Wyckoff Ave. In addition to two other Variety Cafe locations, Compton is co-owner of two restaurants in Williamsburg, Blue Collar and Miller’s Tavern. Describing the new Variety as, “A young coffee shop, that seems more grandiose then we are – gussied up DIY,” Compton aspires for this location to bring this neighborhood great coffee and become a meeting place of sorts.
This cafe is a spacious, brick walled, sunny spot at the corner of Wyckoff and Himrod which is now the headquarters for Variety Café.
At the moment, they’re completely open for business, serving Stumptown Coffee, as well as croissants and other pastries by Ceci Cela and tea from Divinitea. But there are more plans for this cafe after their grand opening on April 1st.
In addition to the warm vibes, pleasant music, and natural sunlight, there is also a giant silver roaster in the back of the giant cafe, deeming this location the Variety Headquarters as they begin to roast their own coffee.
“We’ve been with Stumptown since 2008, and they rule and are super supportive. Our roaster gets up and running here in about 2 weeks, and once that’s running we will slowly bring in our stuff here, and it’ll be about a year transition before it will be about 100% Variety,” says Compton. He explains that roasting their own coffee seemed to be the next natural step for Variety and this location was the perfect spot for them to begin their roasting endeavors. Variety will be sourcing all of their coffee sustainably through Red Fox Coffee Trading.
The new Variety Cafe is a great place to come work during the day. It’s very bright, which has always been a problem at many coffee shops. There is even a huge table for meeting larger groups towards the back of the space. Compared to the other locations, this one is much more grandiose, Compton says. It’s a lot nicer, but the goal isn’t to be fancy. The goal is for Variety to be an anchoring point in the neighborhood. And Variety’s heart is in the right place: “I hope the coffee tastes really delicious. I want a medicore-ly busy café. We mostly just want to bring really good coffee.”
