The new Sakrid Coffee Roasters outlet at 300 Witherspoon Street closed this month after less than 18 months in business. Parents dropping off at Community Park School, or clients at TigerLabs, will now have to look elsewhere for their joe, and people are asking, why can’t we have nice things in Princeton? .
Mayor Mark Freda ceremonially cut the ribbon at the new coffee shop last October. The outlet is described as “Our Home Base” on the Sakrid website. So why has it gone? We reached out to Sakrid to ask what had happened, but did not receive any response at the time of publication. The word on the street is that Sakrid had a short lease on the space, and when it was up, they chose not to renew.
Businesses come and go in Princeton all the time for all sorts of reasons, but in this case, Sakrid was prevented from realizing their ambitions for the site after the Princeton Zoning Board denied their application to roast coffee beans at the property (report via Tap Into Princeton: Princeton Zoning Board Turns Down Sakrid Coffee’s Roasting Operation). Sakrid had hoped to do small-batch, artisanal coffee roasting of coffee beans on the premises, but the Princeton zoning officer considered that to be a ‘manufacturing’ use that required a special use variance to be allowed in a commercial area.
The Zoning Board considered the variance, but, urged on by a group of neighbors who insisted that any coffee roasting would ruin their quality of life, they ultimately denied the proposal. Sakrid offered to greatly restrict the number of hours when roasting would take place, and use state-of-the-art equipment to minimize any odors that might come from the roasting process, but it was to no avail.
Many of the objectors said that they would be very happy to have a coffee shop on Witherspoon Street, just not any coffee roasting. Now they have neither, and who knows if they’re happy? There are other places to get coffee in Princeton of course, including Sakrid’s remaining branch at 20 Nassau Street, but the town might want to consider whether it’s appropriate that the most ornery Princeton residents get given a “heckler’s veto” over what businesses can operate here.
walkableprinceton 
Dismissive much?
“Most ornery Princeton residents?” “Heckler’s veto?”
Basically you’re saying that the people who spend an hour or less at the coffee shop should have their needs placed above those who live in the neighborhood and spend two-thirds of their day there.
I think the question of whether the coffee roasting, with the restrictions accepted by Sakrid, would really be bothersome was an empirical one. The problem is that you can’t really test it – once you give a business a right, you can’t take it away. So I think the zoning board made the right decision in this case.
It’s roasting coffee, not stockpiling cow manure. The objections never made sense and still don’t. What was the problem going to be? That the area around a coffee shop smelled like coffee?
Yah, people would have died from that coffee roaster. I agree. Great choice by the zoning board and great scientific evidence from the neighbors to protect our air from the Diacetyl. I can’t wait to retire in Princeton and practice my google searches to oppose things with my old decaying brain. Currently too busy working to practice the beautiful art of NIMBY.