Black Ring Coffee Roasters

America's Best Cold Brew at Coffee Fest in 2019 is a hard thing to hand over, and this shop changed hands in January 2025 — Robby Hainley on the Ambex now, the Thursday public cuppings still standing, the roaster still running. The art vending machine has outlasted the ownership change.

• Thursday public cuppings
• A cold brew stop
• A long laptop sit
• Sitting outside

Roasting happens on premises on the Ambex, and the shop names its buys down to lot and cooperative, an Ethiopia Guji Natural, a Guatemala Acatenango from the La Asuncion Cooperative, with suppliers Bodhi Leaf, Vista Bean, and Hacea named in the open. It's honest about the limits too: no direct partnership with that Guatemalan cooperative, and no varietal or roast date on any page.

Juliette Simpkins designed the room herself and started by stripping the century-old building back to its brick, then filled it with enough seating for the neighborhood that kept telling her there was nothing up here. A local-artist program hangs on those walls, and an art vending machine has been running since 2020.