Nestled on the corner of West Broad and Maple Street lies one of Falls Church City’s newest venues: Rare Bird Coffee Roasters. The shop only opened about two months ago, and it is already a clear favorite of many. At almost any time of day the woody interior is full of customers, from young college students to busy families. For the owners Bryan Becker and Lara Berenji, such bustle was a surprise.
“I was quite surprised… We were, the first Saturday, completely overwhelmed with the turnout, and we were very excited and happy; [we were] rushing around around like crazy people because we were running out of food and coffee,” Berenji said.
Rare Bird is not exclusively a coffee shop. It also roasts coffee, not only for its own shop but also to sell to local grocery stores and retailers. Rare Bird Coffee Roasters had a small beginning as coffee roasters.
“It started with Brian, who had a hobby of roasting coffee. He started with a Whirley Pop popcorn maker; he drilled a hole in the top and put a probe thermometer in…He moved on to a sample roaster, and from there it just escalated,” Berenji said. “He got a six-pound roaster, and then he wanted to make a business of selling the coffee to people instead of just having it be a hobby.”
They eventually found their own space to roast coffee in DC and began selling it through their online store. What they found, however, was that they liked the “human” aspect of selling coffee much more.
“The owners [of their roasting space] had a furniture store on the first floor and they would have open houses every Thursday and last Saturday of the month, so we tagged on and started selling our coffee,” said Berenji. “Once we started doing the open houses we realized how much we liked working with people.”
Once this space on the corner of West Broad and Maple became available, they jumped at the opportunity. Rare Bird had always been a local project of the Falls Church, Arlington, and DC area, selling their coffee to stores such as The Local Market on West Broad, and Each Peach Market in NW DC. All of the pastries they sell in their shop also come from local sources, such as Acme Pie and Village Sweet Bakery in Arlington.
“We want to work with local people, and gain notability by being a local shop,” Berenji said.
Since the shop officially opened on October 3, it has been carrying on very successfully. They currently roast on location, however that might have to change if the rate of sales continues to stay high.
“Our most immediate goal is to just have really outstanding coffee consistently. Our next growth possibility would be that our volume of coffee needed would be so great that we would need a separate space to roast in. For now, I don’t think we’ll change where things are, but we’re always hoping it will increase to that point.” Berenji said.
When asked about what type of Rare Bird Coffee she likes the best, Berenji responded:
“My favorite is the ‘Montañas del Diamante’ from Costa Rica… That one for me shines.”
It seems that Rare Bird’s coffee reflects the shop itself: Falls Church’s newest store certainly shines.
