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This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (March 2024)
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| Formerly | RS-RH Opco 1[1] |
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| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Retail coffee |
| Founded | 2020; 4 years ago (2020) |
| Founders | Vinay Menda & Issam Freiha[2] |
| Headquarters |
,
U.S.
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Number of employees | 157[1] |
| Website | www |
Blank Street is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. It was launched in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2020. As of December 2022, the company operates 58 locations in New York, London, Boston, and D.C.[3]
Blank Street was established in May of 2020, launching three months later in the parking lot of the Wythe Diner in Brooklyn. It was here that founders Issam Freiha and Vinay Menda began selling coffee out of their battery-powered mobile coffee cart, in partnership with EV Foods.[4] Menda from the UAE and Freiha from Lebanon, the two came to New York to study at NYU and Columbia respectively.[5]
The pair was inspired by the high-growth, small-format, and mobile-first food retail businesses in Asia, and saw the opportunity to replicate that experience in the US.[5][6] However, less than a year into the business, they would open their first brick-and-mortar location on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.[7]
In two years, Blank Street had opened 40 locations across Brooklyn and Manhattan. The rapid expansion was backed by prominent investors, including General Catalyst and Tiger Global.[8]
Expansion would soon reach other US cities, such as Boston, where they opened their first location at Beacon Hill in 2022.[9] That same year, Blank Street would also extend into Washington, D.C., making their debut in Dupont Circle.[10]
The growing chain also entered the UK in 2022, first opening a shop in the Fitzrovia district of London.[11][12]
