The Orange Sky Coffee Roasters bar in West Orange, New Jersey. All images courtesy of Orange Sky Coffee Roasters.
The coffees are the stars that shine at Orange Sky Coffee Roasters, which just opened a cafe and adjoining roastery in the northern New Jersey town of West Orange.
Guests entering the long, narrow space can find espresso drinks prepared on a flamboyant 2-group Kees Van Der Westen Spirit espresso machine between white-painted original brick walls beneath restored tile ceilings.
A terrazzo stone counter atop the cheery mint-green-fronted bar was one of the last pieces of a significant remodeling project undertaken by Orange Sky’s married co-owners, Ray and Patricia Laws-Locicero, who transformed the previously the dreary, low-ceilinged office space.
“We were going for minimalist but not austere, and trying to have pops of bold color,” Ray Laws-Locicero told Daily Coffee News. “The place was previously a bankruptcy attorney’s office, so it was very — I don’t want to say depressing, but I guess maybe they didn’t want to look like they were making too much money off their clients.”
Potted plants alongside modern shelving and furniture help liven up the shop, where a Curtis GB4 batch brewer provides hot coffee or batches destined for a wort chiller prior to tap dispensation through a Brood nitro system.
An electrical engineer by trade who fully transitioned into coffee last year, Ray Laws-Locicero roasts for the shop and the brand’s e-commerce customers on a Giesen W6A roaster in an approximately 270-square-foot backroom adjoining the shop.
Green coffees purchased mostly through Royal New York are darkened into what one might consider the day and night of Orange Sky, which Laws-Locicero described as either the bold or the bright.
“It seems like a lot of the clientele do prefer a darker roast, a ‘bolder’ kind of flavor, so I try to provide that especially for any milk-based drinks. But then I also try to mix in something a little lighter, brighter, juicy,” said Laws-Locicero. “I tell our baristas, ‘we just want to serve good coffee, and service should be our number one priority.’ I think at the end of the day, people are coming back for good service more so than anything else.”
Prior to launching Orange Sky, Ray Laws-Locicero dabbled in commercial roasting through previous ventures with his sister, a restaurateur, while using shared equipment at the Multimodal Roasting facility in Queens.
With a new business fully up and running, it’s blue skies ahead for Orange Sky.
“I would love to have this roaster move to another facility, maybe a warehouse, then open the space to have some seating, because right now we’re just grab-and-go,” said Ray. “But this is my first [company], so I want to walk before I run.”
Orange Sky Coffee Roasters is located at 6 Main Street in West Orange. Tell DCN’s editors about your new coffee shop or roastery here.
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Howard Bryman Howard Bryman is the associate editor of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine. He is based in Portland, Oregon.
