Ethiopia · Yirgacheffe Kochere
Hambela · washed · Heirloom
Jasmine, bergamot, white peach, honeyed finish. A delicate, perfumed cup — best as a slower V60 or a single-origin pour-over, served at 195°F.
The Coffee Program
Single-origin coffee, roasted in-house, brewed one cup at a time.
Pillar Café is a working roastery inside a quiet café. Eighteen single origins on the pour-over bar, a Q-Grader head roaster in the corner, and a 1kg drum turning every Tuesday. No shortcuts, no blends of convenience — just one bean, one brew, one honest cup.
Meet the Roaster
14 years, 9 origins, 1 drum.
Mara Okonkwo leads the coffee program at Pillar. She joined the team in 2019 as our second head roaster, after eight years sourcing green coffee across Ethiopia, Kenya, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Rwanda, Costa Rica, and Burundi — nine origins, fourteen harvest cycles, and a Q-Grader certification she earned in 2014.
Her approach is unhurried and specific: she cups every lot that arrives in the green room, writes a roast curve by hand, and signs each bag with the date it left the drum. The 1kg Probat on the mezzanine runs Tuesday and Friday, turning roughly 180 pounds of single-origin coffee each week — every bean on the pour-over bar was roasted within the last 14 days.
— Mara Okonkwo, Head Roaster & Q-Grader
Field Notes
A short note from the roastery:
Tuesday morning, 6:14 a.m. The drum is warm. Green beans from the Yirgacheffe lot go in — 320 grams, charge temperature 380°F, drop at 405°F, twelve minutes total. By the time the café unlocks at seven, the first batch is cooling in the tray. By Tuesday afternoon it will be bagged, labeled, and resting on the pour-over bar with the date stamped on the front. Fourteen days from now, the last of those beans will leave the hopper, and a new lot will take its place. That is the rhythm. Roughly 180 pounds a week, twelve minutes at a time, one bag at a time, never older than fourteen days.
— Roastery floor log, Tuesday
The Pillar Subscription
Have the roastery ship to you.
A standing order of single-origin coffee, roasted on Tuesdays and Fridays and shipped the same day. We currently ship to subscribers in 41 U.S. states and 6 countries — flat-rate USPS Priority inside the States, DHL Express everywhere else.
- 41U.S. states we ship to
- 6countries outside the U.S.
- 14dmaximum age at your door
Start a SubscriptionPause or cancel anytime · $39/month and up
Weekly
For the daily drinker.
One 12oz bag every Tuesday — for households going through roughly two bags a week. Shipped same-day after the morning roast.
$26 / shipment
Biweekly
For the steady rotation.
One 12oz bag every other Tuesday — the most common cadence, and the one we recommend for solo drinkers. Skip a shipment any week.
$24 / shipment
Monthly
For the curious taster.
Two 8oz bags on the first Tuesday of each month — usually two different origins, hand-picked by Mara for contrast and seasonality.
$32 / shipment
From the Menu to the Bar
Tasted the menu. Now taste the brew — reserve your seat.
A subscription tells you what we roast; a seat at the bar tells you what we taste. Drop in any weekday between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., plug in, order the Yirgacheffe, and stay as long as the work takes.