Some of the most well-tread clichés about D.C.’s changing neighborhoods will soon combine into one project: A combination bike shop and coffee bar in Brookland.
The owners of Dupont and Foggy Bottom’s Filter Coffee and Logan Circle’s The Bike Rack are teaming up for the new project and are calling it the “first true bike shop/coffee shop concept in D.C,” as PoPville first reported. Though it’s not actually the first (CycleLife USA in Georgetown has a cafe/coffee/smoothie bar in its shop), The Bike Rack owner Chuck Harney says this will be the first bike shop that exclusively sells coffee—-and potentially a few pastries.
Still, it’s big news for the Northeast neighborhood, which recently made headlines for luring a Busboys & Poets over to its quadrant. The new shop just signed a lease two weeks ago on the Arts Walk of the Monroe Street Market development. It will most likely be called “Bike Rack and Filter Coffee” as a straightforward ode to the brands the two businesses have already built in the District.
The concept has been a year in the making, says Harney. Once completed, there will be a bar with stools looking out at Monroe Street NE and other seating areas where people can drink their Filter coffee while waiting for their bike repairs. Or people can just go to the shop for coffee—-something that will help pay the rent during the winter months when bike sales are sluggish. On the cycling front, Bike Rack will largely sell Giant bikes like they do in their Logan Circle store and may also sell some handmade custom frames.
Harney says he’s researched successful bike/coffee shops elsewhere, like in Los Angeles and Austin, where Lance Armstrong owns the well-known Mellow Johnny’s.
The two D.C. businesses decided to set up new shop in Brookland because it’s a rapidly growing and developing neighborhood, Harney says, predicting that it will be the next hot area. He admits that there’s a risk of seeming like a Portlandia location.
“The hipster element will be there without a doubt. Fixies single speed, commuters, we’ll also have recreational bikes,” he says. “Brookland NE is still that one kind of spot that it’s not too far away and still affordable.”
The store is set to open in September or October.
Photo by RACINGMIX via Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0