Small World Coffee opened its doors on December 22nd, 1993. Almost immediately, it was an instant success with lines of customers waiting to order a drink. The café is located 1/2 a block from the main gates of Princeton University. When the owners, Brant Cosaboom and Jessica Durrie, set out on their year-long search for a town to open a café, they knew they wanted to be in a vibrant college town with a real downtown that had varied shops and people walking around. The desire to open a café hit Jessica when she was studying at Cornell’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Administration. She lived her early years in Rome, Melbourne, and Sao Paulo, all of these experiences contributed to her desire to create a place for people to come together. She met Brant after graduation, where they were both working at the Espresso Royale in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Brant had just graduated from University of Michigan with a degree in Biological Psychology. He too spent a number of years abroad during his youth in Spain and Korea. When Jessica was 27 and Brant was 25, they moved to Princeton to open small world coffee.

Throughout the 90’s and into the new millennium, Small World Coffee has brought high quality espresso based beverages, brewed coffee, and other treats to the Princeton public. Ten years and five espresso machines later, they still focus on the traditional values they started with: hard work, attention to detail, a community-centric business philosophy, and producing precision roasted coffee. In 1997, small world roasters was started with a partner Jon March. This wholesale roasting division of the business guarantees the café to have a high quality bean. The roaster is 5 miles up the road in Rocky Hill and employs some of small world coffees best baristas to roast the beans. A great synergy exists between the two businesses.

Small World Coffee has an extremely large and loyal following of customers and staff in Princeton and beyond. There are many customers that have been regulars from the beginning and staff members that worked at the café since the early years and help to make it a thriving business and community center.