Roasting Plant

Lower East Side

HoursOpen · Closes 17:00

TypeRoaster · National Chain

Roasting Plant's Javabot, designed by a Starbucks executive, roasts beans in the shop.

Mike Caswell designed the Javabot, an automated roasting and brewing system, in his home basement while he was a Starbucks executive, after seven years of development. Vacuum tubes carry beans from canisters to the roaster, then the grinder, then the brewer.

The first shop opened on Orchard Street, between Broome and Grand, in April 2007. Roasting Plant roasts in every store, every day.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

At this shop

The shop is a single street-level room at 81 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side, with a large plate-glass window and a glazed door onto a tree-lined block. A wall of about a dozen floor-to-ceiling glass tubes stands behind a pale wood counter, and customers scoop whole beans by weight from steel spouts, with the espresso bar at the back. Blue metal chairs and a round table stand out on the sidewalk.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠