The Felix Roasting Co. coffee shop and bar in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood opened this year. Images courtesy of Felix Roasting Co.
While the eastern portion of the United States has some drastic cultural differences from the coastline to Appalachia, or the bustling north to the sweltering south the common love of coffee runs as deep as the waters of the North Atlantic.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has been too much to bear for an untold number of cafes this year, when already slim margins were driven to their limits, and temporary closures too often became permanent ones. Yet some entrepreneurs brazenly defied that trend in 2020, opening their first ever shops or pushing forward with pre-existing expansion plans with hope for a brighter tomorrow.