Press
A collaboration with our friends at Boomtown Table and Floating Home Films. Read full article here.
(Photo: Tracy Schuhmacher/@RahChaChow/staff photographer)
Ugly Duck Coffee opens in East End
May 18, 2016, Tracy Shuhmacher/ @RahChaChow, Democrat & Chronicle
Ugly Duck Coffee quietly opened Tuesday at 89 Charlotte St.
With little fanfare, owners Rory and Cris Van Grol took the paper off the windows of their cozy shop, which once was home to the Little Bakery and 1975 Gallery. The plan was to have a soft opening as they trained staff and completed the space.
"Before we knew it, it was filled up in here," Cris Van Grol said.
(Photo: Cris Van Grol)
Ugly Duck Coffee Lands Gracefully in Rochester, NY
May 25, 2016, Howard Bryman, Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine
When specialty coffee fulfills its reputation for pretentiousness, pristine new shops seem to swoop down from above and glide into a neighborhood like swans into a duck pond. In Rochester, N.Y., a new multiroaster serves meticulously crafted drinks made from coffees roasted by some of North America’s finest roasteries, although as swan-like as that sounds, Ugly Duck Coffee strives to make everyone feel at home.
“We didn’t want to be super coffee-related, we just wanted to have fun and have a more relaxed atmosphere and be very approachable,” Ugly Duck cofounder Rory Van Grol told Daily Coffees News about the name of the shop that’s currently in soft-opening mode. “It breaks that barrier down.”
(Photo: Mark Chamberlin)
Ugly Duck Turns Beautiful Coffee
February 3, 2016, Laura Rebecca Kenyon, City Newspaper
Had it not been for a game of Magic the Gathering, there might not be an Ugly Duck Coffee.
In 2009, Ugly Duck Coffee owner Rory Van Grol was living in Rhode Island. He and a housemate were playing the fantasy trading card game when the housemate decided to brew some coffee. After taking a sip, "I noticed it tasted much better than what I was used to," Van Grol says, "and I wanted to know why."
(Photo: Cris Van Grol)
Meet the Man Behind the Cart
March 4, 2016, Christine Dionese, Boomtown Table
Think you'd be more excited if you could refresh your scenery throughout the week?
That’s exactly what Rory Van Grol does. Last year, the former punk and hardcore vocalist traded the mic-in-hand for Ugly Duck Coffee, a roving, pop-up coffee bar that calls a different Rochester business home each day.
We recently caught up with Van Grol to get the scoop on the upcoming opening of Ugly Duck’s brick and mortar shop, coffee traditions and what it means to grow a family-shared business in the Rochester community.