City League Coffee Gets Home Court Advantage with New Brooklyn Roastery

At the new City League Coffee roastery in Sunset Park. All images courtesy of City League Coffee.

After several years of renting roasting time on a colleague’s equipment on Long Island, Brooklyn, New York-based City League Coffee has launched operations in a dedicated production space.

Inside a multipurpose building known as The Whale, not far from City League’s Bay Ridge cafe, a brilliant turquoise Diedrich drum roaster anchors the approximately 800-square-foot City League roastery. The brand has also opened a coffee bar in The Whale’s lobby. 

“It was important for it to be here in our own neighborhood, not only for our commute from our own home here in Sunset Park and the close proximity to our current shop, but we wanted to continue to remain where we began,” City League Founder Dane Demchak told Daily Coffee News.

With additional space available for events, City League christened the new roasting home with a holiday market last December that included more than 20 local vendors, plus live DJs, food and mini-futsal games for kids organized by building-mate Brooklyn City F.C. There was also a bar sponsored by frequent coffee-beer collaborator Sixpoint. 

“We have outgrown each space we’ve done [the market] in, so this year we did it inside the building where we roast, and it was a blast,” said Demchak.

Moving forward, the company plans to use the extra space for coffee tastings, wholesale training and community events such as coffee education classes. 

After launching in 2018, City League upped its game by using the Probat P12 at a Long Island facility owned by Flux Coffee in Farmingdale. City League opened its first cafe in Bay Ridge in early 2023, leaning into a fun mix of sports, ’90s nostalgia and neighborhood hangout energy.

Recently, the family-run company added sisters Monica and Jessica Valenzuela, the former as cafe manager and the latter as a barista. The Valenzuela sisters also run a side-hustle wholesale baking project called Little Boxes NYC, which now supplies cookies, quiches and other baked goods stacked in the cafe’s pastry case.

“Monica showed up to her interview with a resume and a box of cookies, and that was all that was needed to convince me,” said Demchak.

Meanwhile, Demchak’s 8-year-old son Omri has joined the team as a packaging artist. Enthralled by a watermelon co-fermented coffee developed in collaboration with Colombian producer Unblended Coffee, Omri named the product Watermelon Magic and created the design now used on burlap sacks and retail labels.

“These moments really make all the headaches and long nights of running a small biz worth it,” said Demchak. “My family is obviously such an integral and main part of why we do what we do, and having my art-obsessed kid be able to use his own talent for City League has been such a joy.”

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