Blue Bottle Coffee’s Union Market district cafe grand opening March 4, “with a pre-opening community day featuring free coffee on March 3.”

1250 4th Street, NE

From a press release:

“WHO

Blue Bottle Coffee announces the opening of a new cafe in Washington, D.C.’s Union Market district. The new cafe will be a place for guests to enjoy drip coffee and espresso, as well as a selection of food, including pastries, toasts and Liège wafels. The new location will also serve as a hub for Blue Bottle’s Washington, D.C. cafes; an attached training lab will provide staff ongoing coffee education.

WHAT

The Grand Opening of Blue Bottle’s Union Market cafe is Sunday, March 4. On Saturday, March 3, the cafe will host a Community Day, where the public is invited to enjoy a coffee, on the house. Food and merchandise will also be available for purchase, and all sales will go to the cafe’s community partner, charity: water, a nonprofit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries. Guests may also support charity: water by providing donations directly to the organization upon purchases at any Blue Bottle cafe in Washington, D.C.

WHEN  

Community Day: Saturday, March 3, 9 am-3 pm

Grand Opening: Sunday, March 4

WHERE

1250 4^th St. NE

DESIGN

Every Blue Bottle cafe is built with an understanding of the surrounding environment, including its history, population, and geography. Cafes are both a unique representation of the Blue Bottle craft and a tribute to the communities in which they are located.

The Union Market cafe was designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and will serve as the central training location for all Washington D.C. cafes. The cafe’s design comes to life in the details: handmade Taguchi speakers that look as beautiful as they sound; Danish inspired furniture; and a roll-up door that lets in the early morning air. The menu features seasonal single origins, espresso drinks, and culinary offerings, from handcrafted pastries to sweet and savory toasts. And the location couldn’t be better. A few paces away is the eponymous Union Market, a burgeoning district that community leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs call home.

TRAINING            

Each member of the Blue Bottle retail team participates in a rigorous and experiential training program, which includes over thirty hours of initial instruction before beginning to work in a cafe. The training sessions acquaint new team members with Blue Bottle’s core values of hospitality, deliciousness, and sustainability. The sessions also equip members with knowledge of the coffees they’re serving, the most delicious preparation methods for those coffees, and the tools to provide exceptional experiences for guests.

ABOUT 

Blue Bottle Coffee was founded by James Freeman in Oakland, California, in 2002. A self-declared coffee lunatic, James hand-roasted beans in a 183-square-foot potting shed and then delivered them to friends from his Peugeot wagon. Fifteen years later, Blue Bottle is now a small but mighty network of cafes in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Boston, and Tokyo. Improbably and delightfully, the company continues to grow, but it remains united by the simple purpose of sourcing and roasting the world’s best, most sustainable coffees and serving them at peak deliciousness. “