W'burg Coffee Subscription Company Struggles To Open Second Cafe

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — A new coffee bar opening on Grand Street is struggling with health violations brought on by construction, but hopes to open later this week, owners said.

Eleva Coffee Bar, a relatively new company opened by former coffee executive Emilio Baltodano, held a soft opening for its second location at 649 Grand Street last week, but shortly after was closed down by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, records show.

The April 19 inspection gave the coffee bar 85 violation points, about three times the 28 points that requires inspectors to close a business.

Jared Stein, a partner with Eleva, said Tuesday that the inspection was due to some issues during the contractor's construction of safety mechanisms for the business' plumbing systems.

"We're trying to make sure if there was ever a sewage back-up that none of it would go into the coffee," he said. "Those were incorrectly installed and our hot water was not on the National Grid."

The health inspectors found that there were no facilities available to wash utensils or equipment, that the food was not protected from potential sources of contamination, that plumbing was not properly installed or maintained and that there were problems with the hand washing facilities near food preparation areas and the bathroom. The records also show that the "supervisor of food operations" did not have a Food Protection Certificate and that cold food was not held below its required 41 degrees.

Stein said that the coffee bar is waiting for its hot water to be turned back on in order to reopen.

The water is supposed to come back on Thursday, meaning they will likely be back open on Friday, he said.

Eleva Coffee started up its business in 2017 as a direct-delivery coffee distributor. It opened its first coffee bar outpost on North Eighth Street a few months ago.

The company's founders have said that Eleva offers a new, affordable alternative to the typically expensive sustainable coffee model. Eleva works directly with farmers in countries such as Nicaragua, Guatemala and Ethiopia to bring its coffee beans into New York City, where they are put into biodegradable packaging and offered as part of a subscription online or by bicycle deliveries.

Eleva also focuses on giving back to the countries it partners with, including its first project to raise $16,000 and build a school in Nicaragua, according to a feature in Roast Magazine.

"I wanted to offer coffee drinkers great tasting, farm-to-cup, single-origin coffee at an affordable price, while still helping to radically improve the lives of impoverished farming communities," Baltodano says on the company website.