Endgrain Coffee Bar: South Jersey’s new, innovative cafe

Exterior of Endgrain Coffee Bar, photo by Shane Kellum

Located in Pitman, NJ, Endgrain is a quaint and cozy cafe that sits half a block off of the town’s main strip. The coffee bar has been in operation for just over three years now, and as a business, it has shown remarkable growth and success. Endgrain’s owner, Joe Fultano, conceived the idea after leaving his job at Airbnb.

“I worked from home. It was great, it was a great gig…They would fly me out to San Francisco every 3 or 6 months for work, and when I would go out and visit, I would see all the cafes out there and really enjoy the experience, the quality of the coffee.” When his employers decided to move him out to California permanently, Fultano came up with another idea. “I started thinking and I said, well why don’t I look to replicate that café experience that I had out there in South Jersey, because there’s nothing like that near us.”

Since then, Fultano has made quite a bit of progress with his small business.  Endgrain has an eclectic menu, but one drink that sets this cafe apart from the rest is the nitro cold brew: a drink made by putting cold brew coffee into a keg, then pressurizing it with nitrogen gas. “Nitrogen changes the texture of the coffee without changing the flavor.” the shop’s owner explained. “The easiest analogy is that it’s like a Guinness: it gives it kind of a creamy mouthfeel without adding any actual cream.” The local cafe also offers handmade cups of coffee using single-origin coffee. “Single origin would be from one specific country, even more specifically, one mill or one plantation.” For instance, the cafe’s White Honey Gesha coffee comes from Santa Teresa, Costa Rica. The cafe offers a variety of single-origin coffee that are listed in-store.

Owner Joe Fultano behind the counter at Endgrain, photo by Shane Kellum

Another one of Endgrain’s distinguishing features is that they roast their own coffee. In fact, the cafe made PureCoffeeBlog’s list of NJ’s great eight coffee roasters. Fultano began roasting his own coffee after about one year of being open. “I had a fear of becoming complacent. I didn’t want to get too comfortable so it could have gone, looked to open a second location, which [was] probably not gonna happen. The other option was start roasting coffee.” This has opened up Endgrain to sell its coffee wholesale, in-store and online.

The up-and-coming coffee bar has also made its products available in a slew of other locations by collaborating with local businesses. Kelly Green Brewery, for instance, offers customers an imperial coffee stout made from Endgrain coffee; Alaura Kitchen sells a “Vegan Endgrain Espresso” ice cream; Duffy’s Fine Chocolates even offers Endgrain coffee infused caramels. Other locations, such as Bonesaw Brewery and Crossfit Off The Grid, also offer Endgrain products.

Despite the coffee bar’s success in the local community, Fultano is still trying to appeal to the Rowan demographic. “College kids love coffee, and just getting them to come the 1.8 miles from campus is key. We’re just out of sight that not everyone knows we’re here, but I definitely think that the students are my biggest opportunity for growth, so I’m really working on capturing that.”

With how much development Endgrain has gone through since opening in 2015, one can only wonder how far they will have come in another few years. As a cafe that’s constantly trying new things, from adding new menu options to reaching out to other businesses, it will be interesting to see what this coffee bar’s next move is and exciting to watch it grow.

Welcome to The Bean!

Welcome to The Bean, Philly’s source for coffee! My name is Shane Kellum, the sole author and creator of this blog. Throughout my tenure on this site, I will be taking a close examination of coffee culture in the Philadelphia and South Jersey areas, and this may lead you, the reader, to find something new and interesting about the caffeine-scene that encompasses the City of Brotherly Love. For instance, how familiar are you with the concept of cat cafes? Have you ever been to a coffee shop that doubles as a record store? Or deposited a check while sipping a cup of Joe? Philadelphia has a history of being an innovative and progressive area, and the city’s various approaches to America’s favorite beverage is just one way locals have set themselves apart from conventional standards.

In addition to cafe profiles, I will be conducting interviews with folks from all over the region to gain unique perspectives on how they view coffee; because, at its very essence, this drink is ubiquitous. We use it to get up in the morning and stay up throughout the day; we use it as an excuse to socialize with one another; sometimes, we even take it without caffeine just to appreciate its rich, alluring taste. People from all walks of life enjoy coffee, whether a person is white-collar or blue, urban or rural, old or young: everyone has their own take and their own way of enjoying it.

And there’s so many ways to drink coffee! It’s almost hard to keep track of all the different methods to brewing a cup: the French press, the moka pot, the percolator, cold-brew, pour-over, and drip, among others. And once its out of the pot and into your mug, there’s even more variation in how the coffee is prepared: lattes, macchiatos, americanos, cappuccinos, frappaccinos, espresso… It all seems like a lot to wrap one’s head around. That’s why I’ll be going through different brewing and preparation methods during my run on this blog, detailing the steps for each, what they mean, and how that affects the final product.