We're proud to be featured in Newsweek in a story about the vital role independent coffee shops play in communities across America. For nearly 30 years, Zoka has been part of the Seattle area — building relationships with our customers, our farmers, our team, and the local businesses around us. The article looks at why locally owned cafés continue to matter as gathering places, community hubs, and small businesses navigating a changing landscape.
More than a stop on the way to work
The piece makes a point that's easy to overlook: coffee shops are a meaningful part of the country's economy, and independent shops make up a large share of it — there are nearly as many independently owned coffee shops in the U.S. as there are chain locations. Behind every one of them is a small business making its own decisions, without the safety net a large corporation has, and answering to the neighborhood it serves rather than to a national playbook.
That independence is the whole point. A smaller shop can stay close to its customers, adapt quickly, and offer something a little more personal — the barista who remembers your order, the corner table you always take, the sense that this place belongs to where it is.
Nearly 30 years of change
We were glad to share our own experience with Newsweek. The last few years have brought real pressure. As our founder Jeff Babcock put it, "We've been in business for nearly 30 years so we've seen a lot of change. But the acceleration of change and rising costs has been really intensified after the pandemic."
Those costs have been broad. Green coffee prices rose, and so did nearly everything alongside them — shipping, agricultural costs for the farmers we buy from, rent, and labor. Raising prices wasn't a decision we took lightly, but as Jeff noted, we weren't willing to compromise on quality to avoid it. That's the trade every independent shop weighs, and we'd rather be honest about it than cut corners in the cup.
Still a place to stay a while
If anything, the role of the neighborhood café has grown. As the way people work has shifted, more of us need a third place — somewhere that isn't home and isn't the office, where you can settle in for a few hours to work or simply be around other people. It's why we've kept investing in that experience, right down to serious upgrades to the Wi-Fi at our cafés. We want people to come hang out and stay a while.
"After nearly 30 years, our goal isn't to become everything to everyone," Jeff told Newsweek. "It's to remain a really good local coffee company that gives people a reason to choose us — and to come back."
That's been the aim since Jeff opened the first Zoka at Green Lake in 1996: better coffee, roasted with care, served in cafés that grow with their neighborhoods. We're grateful to the community that's kept us here, and glad to be part of a conversation about why places like ours are worth holding onto.
You can read the full Newsweek story here. And if you're nearby, come see us — find the café closest to you. There's a table waiting.