Three Ships Coffee expanding to downtown Norfolk, in new office campus with rooftop event space

Some of the most accomplished craft coffee in the region is coming to Downtown Norfolk.

Three Ships Coffee, started by Brad and Amy Ewing in their Virginia Beach home garage seven years ago, was one of the earliest versions of third-wave coffee in the region — delicate, lighter-roast, Scandinavian-inspired coffees that bring out the bright and fruity notes of coffee berries.

Their coffee has long been an obsession available mostly to those who sought it out, served only in their Virginia Beach ViBe District cafe and a few select restaurants around the region. But this year, the roastery has expanded its production capacity drastically with a new roasting space, Brad Ewing said.

And that means expansion. By the latter half of this year, Three Ships will have a cafe in Norfolk, at 400 Granby St. in one of three buildings of the forthcoming Assembly office campus. That building will soon also be home to a startup tech incubator, engineering and architecture firms, and a rooftop event space and patio, according to Drew Ungvarsky, CEO of Grow digital creative firm and the Assembly project.

The view outside the upcoming Three Ships location in downtown Norfolk, at the corner of Granby and Freemason Streets (Courtesy Three Ships Coffee)

Ungvarsky was a fan of Three Ships’ “world-class coffee,” and had reached out to the Ewings during construction — hoping to make Three Ships that building’s public face in downtown Norfolk.

“We’ve had it on tap at Grow for a few years now — the cold brew at least, and some of the bean coffee,” Ungvarsky said. “Now we get their full presence over here. I believe so strongly in the quality of the product and what they’re doing.”

Brad Ewing said they plan to make the upcoming Norfolk space feel different from the cozy, Bohemian-beachy vibe of the original.

“We’re trying to make the space feel intimate and different, so they each have their own personalities,” Ewing said. “People won’t just get what they get in Virginia Beach.”

The 2,000 square foot cafe will be a modern space with floor-to-ceiling windows shining down onto an elbowed coffee bar — with an interior door leading into shared meeting rooms for tech entrepreneurs.

The first-floor space at Assembly in downtown Norfolk, where Three Ships Coffee will soon begin construction on a new cafe (Courtesy Three Ships )

But Ewing said he wants to temper that refinement with some of the edge he remembers from growing up in the Norfolk music scene.

“Consider it kind of like the weird balance between Amy and me,” he said. “Sophistication and salty dog.”

In part, that will take the form of simple homage. The Norfolk-only house coffee blend — a Colombian-Ethiopian mix processed to bring out natural and funky flavors — will be named after the King’s Head Inn, which played host to the city’s hardcore music scene in the ’80s and early ’90s.

The Ewings plan to create a space to show locally curated art, though those plans have yet to be fully fleshed out. They also hope to host chef pop-ups in the evenings.

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As in Virginia Beach, coffee options in Norfolk will include retail beans, options on cold brew or drip coffee or pourovers, and single-origin coffee roasts. Three Ships is already known for their biscuits and breakfast, but have hired a chef to expand their food options to include lunch, as well as expanded vegetarian and vegan offerings. And in Norfolk, they plan to add wine and beer.

Before putting her palate to use as Three Ships’ coffee roaster, Amy Ewing had worked in the wine industry, and so the Ewings plan to stock grapes a little off the beaten track.

“We’re trying to express different qualities in coffee than most, and we’ve been getting away with making coffee the way we want,” Brad Ewing said. “And so this will also be the wine we would want to drink — likely not an oaky chardonnay. The same goes for the beer. It’ll be a few delicious options instead of a large variety, a little bit of things that are great.”

Patio seating is planned on sidewalks along both Freemason and Granby streets — well-suited for the cafe’s projected summer opening.

But by the time its doors open, the Norfolk space may actually be the third Three Ships cafe. A long-awaited Virginia Beach cafe annex, announced in 2019, will also likely come due this spring in their new roastery space on 612 Jack Rabbit Road, behind Walmart in the Hilltop section.

“We started seven years ago and people weren’t aware of us,” Brad Ewing said “Now it feels like there’s a lot more coffee — and a lot of people are coming back and discovering us after going to the newer places first. We think this is going to be a big year for us.”

Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com