Continuing our journey to reinvent the coffee experience...

There have been a lot of announcements coming from Washington D.C. lately and we’d like to introduce another entry to the mix: Philz Coffee is officially coming to the country’s capital!

We’re so excited to be expanding to a new market?—?our first on the East Coast?—?and selected D.C. as carefully as we select our coffee beans. Anyone familiar with our story knows about our emphasis on quality and service. We have an extensive process in creating quality products and hiring great people who have like minded values. Before brewing the first cup, my dad, Phil, spent 25 years researching coffee and experimenting with different beans from around the world. He wanted each blend to be flavorful, complex, rich, smooth and low in acidity. After decades of experimentation, we now have more than 30 unique blends that achieve all of this. As for our commitment to service, he dedicated years visiting over 1,000 coffee shops across the world to get a better sense of what customers were searching for in their coffee experience.

We selected our East Coast foray with the same precision and care. We chose D.C. because we have a lot of fans that have been asking us to open in town, some of whom are our online customers and some who used to live in the Bay Area. Also, for Philz, psychographic is more important than the demographic?—?we are a brand that cares about quality but also believes in being welcoming and friendly, which makes us accessible to all. People in D.C. are open-minded, they care about quality and they want to make the world a better place. We are humbled by the significance and influence of this city and we are grateful for the opportunity to serve a market that serves the country and the world.

Our first D.C. location will be in Adams Morgan, which is a wonderful community that is young, energetic, and flourishing with diversity and culture. It evokes our roots as it has similar characteristics to the site of original store in the Mission district in San Francisco.

Our vision is to reinvent the coffee experience. We have 21 stores today in the Bay Area and Los Angeles and hope to continue growing to share the Philz experience with more people in the world. However, at Philz, we don’t look at growth in terms of store count, but in terms of team members serving different communities around the world. More stores allow us to hire more great people and those great people allow us to share the special experience with more people in more communities around the world. At Philz, we aim for authenticity and want to be ingrained in each community we serve. We don’t have cookie cutter stores because we want to celebrate the uniqueness and individuality of the people in the community and our team members. The design of our stores begins the day we open because our team members have the freedom to adapt the store to best serve the neighborhood. This can only be done once we get to know the people in our community. That’s what being locally relevant means to us.

A cup of Philz is special. And, it’s clear from the moment you enter our store. You start by ordering with a friendly Barista that helps you choose a blend they think you’ll like best, craft it for you on the spot, and add anything you want in it to taste (milk, sugar, etc. or black, as many do). We don’t want you to leave our stores until you are 100% satisfied so we ask every customer to take a sip to ensure every cup of coffee is perfect to their tastes before they leave.

We’d rather be great at a few things than good at a lot. We want to focus on being exceptional at personalized, handcrafted coffee so you won’t find espresso in our stores. When my dad first shared the idea of Philz, his friends’ response was along the lines of: “You’re an idiot. There’s no way you’re going to succeed without lattes.” Today, we convert thousands of latte/espresso drinkers into Philz fans every few month and we’re excited to bring that phenomenon to D.C.

When you walk into a Philz store, you’ll see it’s different right away. It’s more like a bar than an actual coffee shop with Baristas who act as bartenders. At most artisanal coffee companies, customers pay first for a drink, but at Philz, we’ve reversed the process: order with your Barista, then pay. That’s because we want our customers to interact directly with the Barista making their coffee to ensure they are 100% happy. If it’s your first time, let one of our Baristas know, and they will be ecstatic to brew you the perfect cup!

Our hope will always be that customers leave the Philz experience happier because we believe happy people are contagious in creating a much happier world. We may not be able to make the world happy all at once, but we’re determined to do it one community, one cup at a time.

For those of you in the D.C. area looking to join the Philz team, we are starting our search for individuals who have a passion for customer service and bettering people’s days. Email us at recruiting@philzcoffee.com!

Looking forward to serving you D.C.!

-Jacob and the Philz Team