by Chris Lucia

Industry veteran Chris Calkins, who also operates Prodigy Coffee and Pulley Collective in New York, opened Gotham in late January. “We believe that coffee is a very personal indulgence, it is our responsibility and pleasure to be a dependable source for great coffee,” Calkins said in a press release.

Gotham will carry a selection of roasts from Prodigy. Other single-origin coffees curated by Calkins and developed at Pulley Collective—where he and a small staff develop custom roasts for wholesale customers—will also be available.

“As important as coffee is to us, it is no more important than how we treat our guests, we ask our team to treat each and every customer with the kindness and respect that they would want for themselves,” Calkins says about the experience he hopes to provide at the new Gotham Coffee retail store.

Calkins has been in the specialty coffee industry for years, opening his first coffeehouse as a college student in Arizona. He was eventually recruited to help Starbucks open their fourth and fifth retail stores in Seattle, moved on to work for La Marzocco in the Bay Area, and opened Spinelli Coffee Co. in 1983. After a brief break from the industry, Calkins launched Prodigy Coffee in 2012.