PARK SLOPE — A coffee roaster with ties to Peru wants to build community in Park Slope with a new cafe.
Uptown Roasters, which works to get better prices for Peruvian coffee farmers, will move into 355 Seventh Ave. between 10th and 11th streets this fall, said co-owner Dan Hildebrandt.
The cafe will serve coffee and espresso drinks and sell roasted coffee by the pound, but Hildebrandt and his wife also plan to use the roughly 1,500-square-foot space for "community-building goals," Hildebrandt said.
Details are still being worked out, but he and his wife, who is a teacher, envision using part of the space to host coffee tastings, educational sessions, neighborhood meet-ups and other community-oriented events.
"We’ve always thought of coffee as something that brings people together," Hildebrandt said.
Uptown Roasters opened its first cafe in June 2015 in East Harlem. The coffee and cacao roaster is an offshoot of Reach Trade, a nonprofit Hildebrandt co-founded that works to improve how water is used in Peruvian coffee farming.
Uptown Roasters' Park Slope cafe will move into the spot most recently occupied by the Pepper Mill deli and grocery, which has been vacant since 2013. Hildebrandt hopes to open the cafe later this fall after a renovation.
Hildebrandt said he and his wife were a little leery of opening yet another coffee shop in Brooklyn, but thought the neighborhood would be receptive to Uptown Roasters' global do-gooder mission.
"We're excited to be part of the community and I think we're something that will fit in well because we're not very corporate," Hildebrandt said.
Other recent Openings and Closings in Park Slope include:
► An "Italian fusion" restaurant, Il Sogno Secondo, opened Aug. 3 at 310 Fifth Ave. between Second and Third streets, in the former Baluchi's space, the Park Slope Fifth Avenue BID announced on Twitter.
► The women's boutique 4 Play Brooklyn at 360 Seventh Ave. and 10th Street is closing after 15 years in business. The store's sister shop, Habit, will remain open in Park Slope and Cobble Hill.
► Los Nopales, an "authentic" Mexican restaurant, is moving into the former Bierkraft space at 191 Fifth Ave. near Berkeley Place.
