when you want, where you want.
L.A.’s Maru Coffee Will Open in Williamsburg Next Week
Photo: Maru Coffee
When any Los Angeles establishment plants its flag in New York, I let the West Coast diaspora go first so they can list all of the ways it doesn’t compare to the original. Gjelina isn’t Gjelina without the year-round quality of California produce; Erewhon is only daring to export a smoothie bar to a private club — hardly offering the grandeur of a full store. Reproducing the soul of a coffee shop is more realistic, but the most successful examples are chains, paragons of corporate consistency. Maru, whose first East Coast location opens on Monday in Williamsburg, is something different. It’s the best possible case for locals and bicoastals alike, a still-passionate start-up that is striving for nothing more than to live up to its own standards for perfection.
A coffee-snob food-editor friend calls Maru “very hyped” but concedes he “liked them before the lines” that formed after Maru started selling cream-top iced coffee and matcha in 2018. When the first store opened in 2016, it was known as a place with properly dosed espresso shots and a widely sourced pour-over menu that is today filled with six single-origin house roasts of its own. On a recent visit to the Brooklyn store, while new staff were being trained by manager Kyuho Choi, who recently moved from L.A., it was evident that Maru wants to make an impression with coffee, not necessarily the cream.
To that point, the menu features unique espresso sets that pair espresso or a cortado with a small drip-coffee chaser. (It’s a riff on the one and one — two single shots of espresso, one with milk, the other without — that has become an off-menu handshake among baristas.) When they’re ordered at Maru’s coffee bar, the sets are served on custom-etched wood trays with tasting notes for each drink, but the drink duo can also be taken to go: Maru has fitted cardboard carriers that can be managed with one hand for anyone who wants to drink it by the waterfront. (Prices range from $4.50 for a single espresso to $8 for the most expensive “set.”)
Co-founder Jacob Park has only ever worked in coffee: He began as a barista 22 years ago in L.A. when he was just 15 and was introduced to roasting by a mentor “from the first generation of specialty coffee,” in 2008, still early days for coffee’s third wave. From there, Park became self-taught and was working as the roaster for a café when he met his current business partner, Joonmo Kim, who wanted to pursue coffee after straying from a career in finance. Over the years, Park says his style has matured into one that celebrates “the traditional concept of coffee,” something “strong and bitter and dark” that his father or grandmother would have enjoyed.
His answer is Maru’s house blend, Santo, roasted dark enough to enhance the classic coffee profile with mild acidity. More unusual, and lighter, is the Sanmi, a mix of conventional and naturally processed beans (where instead of removing or “washing” the cherry after harvesting, it is allowed to ferment around the bean as it dries), which is what Maru uses in espresso drinks like an iced breve macchiato, essentially a cup of frothy half-and-half stained with a shot of tangy espresso, like a fresh-coffee Creamsicle.
Drip coffee is given similar consideration, brewed every 30 minutes using three-day-old beans. That’s early by most industry standards, which recommend that coffee rests for a week or so to reduce certain gassy and acidic qualities. Park agrees that 10 to 14 days after roasting is when coffee is most representative of its tasting notes, but believes the zippy character of extra-fresh coffee contributes to the flavor he wants in a cup. (Espresso, meanwhile, needs the full ten days.)
In addition to maintaining high standards for freshness and flavor, Park has overseen the design of all of the shops, including the high-ceilinged space on Wythe Avenue, where the direction of every wood grain feels intentional. The low tables and chairs, another Maru signature, pay homage to the founders’ shared Korean background, which add a ceremonial quality to anything consumed here. Park likes them for another reason: They’re an incredibly effective laptop deterrent.
Photo: Maru Coffee
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