WEST BRIGHTON — A new coffee shop aims to bring high quality cups of joe to Staten Island.
Fab Cup, at 605 Forest Ave., aims to bring high quality "craft" coffee for the first time in Staten Island, said owner Maria Lozovskaya, 33.
"We want to give fresh, good quality coffee," Lozovskaya said. "That makes us different than anybody else."
Lozovskaya said her and her workers take time and care to make sure every aspect of the coffee is just right.
They check their espresso grinder every morning to make sure it's precise, weigh how many grams each shot or each cup is, time how long it takes and use beans roasted a week or two before by Toby's Estate in Brooklyn.
"Everything's really accurate and precise," said Shana Matos, 22, a barista at the shop. "This is the best coffee I've served in the five years I've been working."
While they have a large drip machine for quick cups, Fab Cup also makes pour over coffees — manually pouring hot water over the beans — which takes around three minutes to make.
The shop also has iced coffee — brewed for 18 hours in a cold brew maker — and iced tea on a tap system for customers.
Lozovskaya got the craft coffee bug several years ago when she started to frequent a cart outside her job in Hoboken that roasted its own beans and only did pour overs.
She wanted to bring quality coffee to her home in Staten Island because it wasn't available, and when she found out she was pregnant and had to take time off at her job at Thompson-Reuters, she figured it was the right time.
"I said to myself, 'I will be able to stay home for three months, and if we are going to open I think it's a good time,'" she said.
"A lot of people think it's crazy, when people get pregnant and have a kid it's the worst time to start it. For me, it's a business opportunity."
Lozovskaya and her husband started to look for spaces in September, found one a month later and opened the doors to Fab Cup in December.
Aside from coffee, Lozovskaya put some traditional elements from her home country of Russia into the shop, like loose-tea and a type of crepe called blinchiki in Russian.
"Most of what I really like myself, and I couldn't find, that was my idea [for the shop]," she said. "The thought that I would stay home and I couldn't find good coffee, that was scary."
Lozovskaya is also working on getting a liquor license for the spot to serve wine and craft beer.
"It's not another sports bar on Staten Island," she said. "I want it more to be a hang out."
