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.

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.