A new coffee company is taking on Starbucks in London

Morning latte decisions are about to get harder in London.
 

Blank Street Coffee, the fast-growing Brooklyn, New York-based chain, is bringing its inexpensive espresso to the UK capital in June. The first location is set for Fitzrovia, near University College London.
 

The company plans to open additional locations in quick succession in the area while expanding into the residential Marylebone neighbourhood.
 

Blank Street is accustomed to moving fast. The chain was started in Williamsburg in summer 2020 by Vinay Menda and Issam Freiha. They now have 29 places around New York, and plan to have 100 locations in the city by the end of this year.
 

This year the company will also open two-dozen shops in the UK. The expansion follows recovery in Britain’s coffee shop market to £4.4 billion ($5.7 billion) in revenue last year. The number of UK coffee shops now exceeds pre-pandemic levels.
 

“Our second-biggest city will be in London,” says Menda, who grew up there and is a former managing partner at Reshape Ventures, a venture capital firm.