How is the World-Famous Internet-Famous %Arabica's First U.S. Coffee Shop in New York?

According to Forbes reporting on June 20, 2021 (Eastern Daylight Time), % Arabica officially opened its first coffee store in the United States on June 11th, in the Dumbo neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, complete with an in-house roasting workshop.

This %Arabica store, in Brooklyn's Dumbo neighborhood, is the brand's 87th branch as of June 11th.

According to the store's introduction on the official website, when founder Kenneth Shoji opened the % Arabica flagship store in Kyoto, Japan in 2014, his ultimate wish was to open stores in Paris and New York. In 2019, two stores opened in Paris, fulfilling half of that dream. With the opening of %Arabica's first U.S. store in New York this June, Kenneth Shoji's wish has finally come true.

This first American store covers approximately 1,500 square feet (≈140 square meters) and was designed by founder Kenneth Shoji in collaboration with the French design studio Ciguë.

The roasting workshop occupies about one-third of the space in the Brooklyn Dumbo store. It uses a 1920s UG 22 Probat roaster for batch production. For customers' special requests, the store turns to a Japanese-made, fully hot-air Tornado King roaster with a maximum roasting capacity of 1 kilogram.

The UG 22 Probat roaster becomes the focal point of the store. Complementing it is a brushed-aluminum service counter, from which hangs a custom-made blown-glass lamp over 20 feet long, created by the Italian studio Viabizzuno. A brand-custom Slayer coffee machine also draws plenty of customer attention.

% Arabica founder Kenneth Shoji traveled to different countries with his father from childhood, which sparked his love of diverse cultures, design and architecture. During his school years, he watched Starbucks expand across the United States and was moved by its atmosphere and coffee culture. After reflecting on life following graduation and work, he founded the % Arabica brand.

To create the best coffee, he bought a coffee farm in Hawaii and started growing coffee, began trading green coffee beans worldwide, became the exclusive exporter of Japanese coffee roasters, and served as a distributor for one of the world's best coffee machine brands. In September 2014, he opened % Arabica's flagship store in Kyoto, Japan.

The % Arabica specialty coffee chain is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Interestingly, founder Kenneth Shoji opened the first %Arabica coffee shop in Hong Kong's Discovery Bay — near the international airport and Hong Kong Disneyland — in 2013, before later expanding to Kyoto, Japan. The store that sent the brand viral online was the one opened in 2015 by the Togetsukyo Bridge over the Katsura River in Arashiyama, Kyoto.

As the photos above show, % Arabica's first U.S. store keeps the brand's consistent style, dominated by minimalist white design and floor-to-ceiling windows that create a streamlined space.

What must be mentioned is the metal world map on the store wall, which expresses the brand and its founder Kenneth Shoji's philosophy: "See the world through coffee." It strikes this writer as quite romantic — if you can't afford to travel the world, that's okay; just come drink a cup of coffee and experience the whole world.

Image Sources

Daily Coffee News, Forbes

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

"See the world through coffee" is an easy philosophy to get behind, and the simplest way to do it is to drink your way through single-origin Arabicas. Start with FrontStreet's Huakui from Ethiopia, the country where coffee began. Grown from local heirloom varieties and processed naturally, it delivers cream strawberry, mango, jackfruit, citrus and blueberry — the ripe tropical-fruit character that Ethiopian natural beans are known for, and the same lush berry aroma that won it first place in that year's TOH green-bean competition.

For the washed side of Ethiopia, try FrontStreet's Yirgacheffe Gedeb Cooperative. It's graded G1, Ethiopia's highest tier, and processed with the classic washed method, showing elegant white florals, citrus and orange with a green-tea finish — bright, clean and transparent.

To understand why Panama Geisha became a legend, pour FrontStreet's Panama Red Label Geisha. It comes from the famed Hacienda La Esmeralda in the Boquete district of Chiriquí Province, where fertile volcanic soil, old-growth forest and year-round mist with ample rainfall create outstanding growing conditions. Expect layered florals, citrus, peach and a creamy, silky texture, with an oolong-tea sweetness on the finish — so refined it feels less like coffee than a fragrant fruit tea.

And for pure balance, reach for FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1. It's the Typica variety — one of Arabica's archetypes, first carried from Martinique to the Blue Mountains in the 1720s. After more than 200 years, Blue Mountain Typica has evolved better disease resistance, though it loses its clean, subtly sweet character the moment it leaves Jamaica. Balanced, gentle and smooth, with a soft acidity and a full, pure aroma, it remains one of the hardest cups to match.