Details Emerge On New Coffee Shop At 5th & H St NW

more links…

Nick Cho, owner of Murky, chimes in himself over here.
Wrecking Ball Coffee Roasters has a placeholder website up here.

Based on those tax assessment estimates, he must be doing pretty well selling coffee.

I used to be a fan of Murky, but this Nick guy seems to always be in the grey area. Nothing like dodging taxes that were given to you by consumers and then re-locating to the same city under a different name. Is is really THAT easy to be a tax cheat? Sheesh!

Why would we want to support such a business owner in our neighborhood? Yes “gpliving”, “another quality coffee option” is a welcomed addition to our neighborhood but how about we look at the larger picture of who we are welcoming to our community. The people of Capital Hill and it’s visitors were providing Nick Cho 40-50K a month and he refuses to do his part as a citizen/business owner and pay his taxes. Welcome to the neighborhood Mr. Cho but I hope any successes you have here are short lived.

I will do the taxes if he’ll pay me to handle that kind of cash flow!

Anon @ 5:57pm: Get over yourself. That’s an issue between a dysfunctional city and a small business who could clearly do a better job at managing cash flow. But to demonize Cho and his coffee shop is absurd. Because he has a strained relationship with the city government does not mean he has a strained relationship with the community his shop is in. I’m shocked that anyone would wish him failure in a neighborhood that needs a little bit of success.

sometimes business owners are good with the vision and not so good with the finance. if starting over with someone else on the hook for the financial obligations to the city allows a vision and a small/medium business to be implemented successfully, then reconfiguring the business might just be fine especially if past obligations are settled one way or the other. 475 H has been vacant for a while so I’m glad to see someone make a go of it there.

I live on the Hill and find Peregrine Espresso to be a vast improvement over Murky. No hard feelings here.

I am big fan of murky coffee and think this is a great add for our neighborhood. As far as coffee goes, Nick Cho brings the passion and the technical know-how. I took a class from him on latte art and I now have much more control over my home cappuccino machine.

Can’t wait for the Wrecking Ball!!!

We need a coffee roaster so we can buy some great freshly roasted beans. It will be a great addition to the neighborhood and helpful to that little corner.

I like coffee, and I like the addition. What’s with the name, though? That coffee better knock me out like a wrecking ball!

We need businesses in Chinatown that pay their taxes. Wrecking Ball Coffee won’t get a dine from me, not matter what they sell.

Nick Cho deserves to share a cell with Marion Barry. Take you illegitimate business elsewhere, Cho.

PQS @ 8:28am: Take responsiblity. It is interesting how you render our city government “dysfunctional” but are willing to knowingly patronize an unwarrantable business owner. The fact that you think it is possible to have a “strained relationship with the city government” and not with it’s community clearly portrays your misunderstanding of what it takes to build a responsible and functional community. Try looking past the sippie hole in your latte lid and be a responsible member of the community by not supporting those who have imprudent business practices.

This is the best news I’ve heard about the neighborhood in awhile. I was seriously driving across the river once or twice a week to just to go to Murky in Clarendon. They have the best coffee in the DC area, and seem to cater to the laptop/entrepreneur crowd. There are power strips snaking all over the floor so you are never far from a plug, and they don’t mind if you stay there all day and only buy one cup of coffee. Its like renting office space for $5/day. I hope the new place has lots of seating and carries over the vibe from the spot in Arlington.

For you anonymous posters that plan to ‘boycott’ the place, knock yourselves out…more room for me.

Murky Coffee was also the site of the infamous confrontation about a year ago over a customer wanting espresso over ice and the barista refusing to provide it. Murky’s owner, Nicholas Cho, posted this open note to the customer in question: http://www.murkycoffee.com/2008/07/open-letter-to-jeff-simmermon.html

After I read that, it made me never want to go to Murky Coffee. Cho’s response is rude and inappropriate – the whole thing was handled poorly and he seems arrogant and mean. Same reason I have no desire to patronize a Carole Greenwood restaurant – I don’t like to pay to be abused along with my food and drink. There are plenty of other places I can go without the rudeness and drama.

CBD — thanks, I was just about to post that! I’ll add that the first day that Murky opens, I’ll be the first in line … to order an iced espresso and see what happens.

I’ll just keep going to Peregrine Espresso in Eastern Market. You know, the place where Murky used to be before Nick “I’m gonna punch you in the d***” Cho decided not to pay his taxes? Better coffee by far anyway.

CBD, thanks for the post. I might just have to bring the cup of ice in with me and pour the espresso into it at the front counter.

It’s nice to see that the majority of posts here agree that Nick Cho is not the type of business owner we want in our neighborhood. The drawback to living long term in a transient and tourist heavy area of the city is that you will have many who only care about having another coffee option and don’t really understand/care about having a say in who our community accepts as a neighbor.

Yes. To be clear (I think a lot of the reportage of the incident at the time missed the point), it’s not really about whether the coffee shop serves iced espresso – though it seems pretty dumb not to do so. The real issue is the rude, snotty way the customer was treated and the inappropriate way the business owner reacted. Did both the barista and the customer act rudely? Perhaps. But when you’re a business owner, you’re supposed to act like a professional. You’re supposed to do damage control. You’re not supposed to escalate things with schoolyard threats and crude, obscene language.

Wow, was totally going looking forward to the new business, but after reading about how the new owner treats customers- forget it!

This guy was rude to a customer. And he might be a jerk after it’s all said and done. But he’s a local guy spending his own money and sweat to open a unique space in the neighborhood. Miles, I mean miles, ahead of dunkin donuts. Real baristas and real coffee. I will be there.

He is also apparently putting the new shop in his girlfriend’s name….maybe he can’t get permits in DC in his own name b/c of tax issues?

after reading both of Nick’s posts on the murky coffee site, there is no way I will be patronizing his shop. I’d rather give my $ to the bucks!