(The Greenpoint Peddler via Instagram)
At this point every other business in New York City is a coffee shop, but what happens when you’re stuck on that rare block that doesn’t have a cafe? Enter The Greenpoint Peddler, a trike that will wheel the cold brew right to you.
After moving to New York from San Diego a little over a year ago, Stacey Gomez, a 34-year-old stay-at-home mom, and her fiancee Moses Carrillo, a 37-year-old former nightclub manager, were sitting in a park when they saw kids flock to an ice cream vendor. They thought: Why not do the same for adults, with coffee? They invested around $6,000 in a custom trike from Oregon-based Icicle Tricycles and within about three months Gomez was tooling around Greenpoint and Williamsburg in a throwback pageboy cap, ringing her old-school bicycle bell and offering up regular and nitro cold brew from Sweetleaf’s nearby roastery. She says she sells about 40 to 60 cups a day.
The 16 oz. cups go for $5 (or $5.75 if you add half and half, whole milk, or oat milk). You might be wondering why they’re so expensive if Gomez and Carrillo don’t have to pay rent on a brick-and-mortar storefront. But hey, you try biking six to 12 miles a day with two three-gallon kegs in a giant cedar box.
Besides, does a regular coffee shop make house calls? “A lot of the businesses that are owner-operated will Instagram or text and we’ll stop by,” Gomez said. The trike has proved especially popular with workers at Broadway Stages, the relatively isolated sound studio where Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and other shows are filmed.
And, no, Gomez doesn’t plan to fold up the bike for winter. Even though she’s from San Diego, she says she likes the cold. She’s even thinking of equipping the bike with a proper espresso machine. (Yes, espresso-machine bikes are real.)
The Greenpoint Peddler operates Monday through Friday, in the mornings and afternoons. Follow on Instagram for updates.