Upscale Felix Roasting Co. Opens Its Fifth Location

Forbes

25-03-2025

The five Felix Roasting Co. coffee lounges are located in tony settings including the Hotel Jerome in Aspen, Col., and four locations in New York City, the Hotel Hugo in West SoHo, Greene Street in SoHo, two on Park Avenue in NoMad, the original which opened in 2018, and its newest location across from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The décor is rather lavish at each location, and the latest Park Avenue coffee lounge contains a custom mosaic floor, antique sconces, and opera-style chandeliers.
It's clear that Felix Roasting Co. is carving its niche as an upscale coffee lounge for the affluent and sophisticated patron, hotel guest, resident and tourist. Most of its cafes seat from 20 to 40 patrons.
It's also a passion project for Matthew Moinian, a principle at the Moinian Group, a privately held real-estate firm that owns more than $10 billion worth of real-estate. It was launched in 1982 by Moinian's dad, Joseph Moinian, an Iranian native who moved to Forest Hills and graduated from CCNY, who is CEO of the firm.
Here's One Way to Control Costs
Because Moinian's firm owns the Hotel Hugo and three of the other locations, he doesn't have to pay rent, reducing its costs. He calls locating Felix Roasting in his hotel as a 'perfect marriage of brand and partnerships for the café and hotel guests.'
He's only a tenant at the Hotel Jerome, which is owned by Auberge Resorts. Moinian acknowledges that being situated in Aspen's Hotel Jerome enables it to reach 'one of the affluent demographics in the U.S. Our bread and offerings are a natural fit there.'
Matthew Moinian is also well-credentialed having earned an MBA from NYU and a law degree from Cardozo School of Law. Felix Roasting Company is independent from his real-estate firm, though he does have angel investors.
Moinian describes his real-estate firm's responsibilities as my '9 to 5 and everything else is my 5 to 9. Not much room for sleep, that's how I like to do things,' he says, explaining he's extremely involved in Felix's operations despite having an active staff.
Coffee Is His Passion
He says candidly that '10 years ago, coffee changed my life. It brought me back to health and help achieve a healthy lifestyle.' He started running, 'lost a ton of weight,' he said, and coffee played a pivotal role in his recovery, so he's dedicated to running coffee lounges.
Though he describes himself as a trained pasta chef, he wasn't particularly informed about coffee and traveled the world for 3 to 4 years to amass a greater knowledge of it. Then he spent another 5 years assembling a team, which includes Reagan Petrehn, who has been nominated multiple times for James Beard Awards for best pastry chef.
Not only is the design of each Felix Roasting Co. plush and lavish, but Moinian controls the coffee production closely. He says its coffee is 'directly sourced and roasted by us' at its Union City, N.J. facility. Indeed, he emphasizes that it prepares all the 'coffee drinks, the syrups, chai, mocha, nut milk' on its own.
Felix Roasting Co. is organized into 3 teams- a roasting team, operations team, which also includes 50 baristas, and products team. The coffee beans stem from farms ranging from Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Roca. Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya and Panama. 'We sometimes buy an entire coffee farm's harvest,' he adds.
Despite its upscale locations, Felix Roasting has kept its prices moderate including $4 for coffee, when many local establishments in NYC charge $5, and $5 for cappuccinos, when some charge $7. It also offers egg, smoked salmon and chicken salad sandwiches for a reasonable $10.
But it does offer specialty crafted drinks at more expensive prices such as its hickory-smoked s'more latte, consisting of espresso with dark chocolate and hazelnut, prepared in front of the guest, which costs $15.
Why keep his prices down at these plush locations? 'We don't have to be the most expensive to be the best. For $5, anyone can have a luxury experience,' he explains. He calls it a 'democratic luxury product.'
When this reporter stopped unannounced at its Greene Street location in SoHo for a cappuccino, he was struck by how casual it felt. Yes, the seats had pink cushions, and there was a blue plush sofa, and portraits on the wall that would fit in the Frick Museum on the Upper East Side, but it was mostly low-keyed with several guests working on their laptops.
On Yelp, Art from San Jose, Ca. described Felix Roasting Co. 'as the definition of a high-end and sophisticated coffee shop. The interior design felt like I was ordering coffee in a royal palace.' He stopped by in the afternoon and it was filled with 'people working, reading and socializing.'
And Joseph from San Francisco also liked the ambiance, which he described as a 'fancy European lounge vibe with subtle music in the background.' He wrote that it looked like a great place to work or read a book.
What does Moinian see for Felix Roasting Co.'s future? 'I see us potentially going to European capitals, and California and Las Vegas, and maybe a stretch in the Middle East.' Asked the 3 keys to its success, he replies 'design, experience and product, the 3 pillars of our success, each of which has its own team.'