Katie's Living Room
I spoke with Katie Bishop, owner of Principles GI Coffee House, about her coffee journey, community activism, and Queer Joyride.
“I’ve always thought of myself as being very principled,” said Katie Bishop, owner of Principles GI Coffee House in Gowanus, Brooklyn. “I have a strong moral compass, so I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll name it Principles to remind myself that I will have a set of principles by which I will operate my business.’” Some of these principles include paying employees a living wage, including a “pay what you want” option for specific menu items, and granting patrons access to the bathroom and other amenities regardless of whether they’re a paying customer.
In its three years of operation, Principles has become a hub for cyclists. “The funny thing is, that wasn’t my intention. Having been in the bike world for a few years, working at a bike shop, leading group rides, and racing alley cats, my whole social circle revolved around bikes. When I opened and all my friends started coming here, they were all cyclists. This became the de facto bike clubhouse.”
Katie became interested in cycling during her time as a United States Marine from 2007 to 2011. “When I got into the military, I wanted to get a bike, but I ended up being stationed in the middle of nowhere in Georgia. It had no bike community or bike infrastructure.” Toward the end of her military service, Katie purchased a bike to ride around South Georgia. In 2011, she sold her car and moved to Portland, Oregon. This was the first instance where Katie’s bike was her main form of transportation. A few years into living in Portland, she was the victim of bicycle theft. “My bike got stolen, but I had it insured. I took the insurance money and used it to move to New York.”
Katie moved to New York City in 2015 to pursue grad school with a focus in classical music. She initially relied on the subway as a means of transportation, but eventually purchased another bike in 2017. Learning to ride in New York City required some getting used to. “Coming from the Portland cycling world, I wanted to follow all the rules, only use bike lanes, stop at all the stop signs and red lights, and be a ‘good cyclist.’ That lasted all of six months before the streets beat me down. The only way to cycle in New York is by being insane.”
Katie challenged herself in 2017 to have her bike be her only means of transportation for at least a year. “No cars, no subways, no planes. I didn’t leave New York. My partner at the time was on board with this. If we were going on a date far away, they would take the subway, and I would bike. We would always end up getting to wherever we were going at the same time.” Katie went on to work as a bike messenger, where she sharpened her knowledge of New York City. “I delivered weed for a couple of years. That got me to understand the city really well. I had a goal in cycling of understanding the city as well as a yellow cab driver does.”
Katie also earned a living by working various barista jobs through grad school and beyond. She became inspired to educate herself on coffee after attending a classical music event called Bachtoberfest. “It was Canadian brass playing a bunch of Bach and other baroque music, along with local beer brewers giving out samples of their beer and talking about it.” Katie was fascinated by the depth of the brewers’ discussion about their beer. This was despite the fact she lives a sober lifestyle. “I have never drank, and never will drink. I thought to myself, what can I get into at this same level of detail that isn’t beer or alcohol? I realized, ‘Coffee, tea, chocolate.’ These are things that have that same level of expert depth.”
Eventually, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Katie lost her barista job. She was forced to pivot to freelance work. “At the time, there was a company called Cups. It was like the gig economy of coffee. A coffee shop could put in a request if someone called in sick or was taking a vacation. They needed shifts covered generally pretty last-minute. I did that for the first year or two of the pandemic while also working at Bicycle Habitat.”
Katie began daydreaming about opening her own coffee shop in 2019, but didn’t start making that dream a reality until the pandemic. “I had this realization that I was enjoying building up a clientele of regulars where I had worked previously. I liked building this familiarity, but once I’d lost that job and it was the beginning of the pandemic, I realized that I was putting in all this emotional energy to gain regulars, but I was ultimately helping someone else’s bottom line. I thought, ’What if I put forth the same level of emotional energy, but it’s building my bottom line?‘”
Before opening Principles, Katie enrolled in veteran business classes at NYU and a women’s veteran entrepreneur program through Syracuse University. She utilized all the resources she could to prepare for business ownership. “I took on all the free business stuff that I could, put together a business plan, and started borrowing money from friends. I spent about a year doing a GoFundMe, saving money, and collecting ideas.” Katie eventually found a for-sale sign at the 139 9th Street location in Gowanus after looking at about a dozen potential spaces in neighborhoods like Red Hook. “There was a landlord here who was willing to work with a first-time business owner. I moved in May of 2022, and it was just an empty garage. I built out everything from there.”
Principles opened in Gowanus during a time of tremendous change for the neighborhood. “I feel like I moved in during the last chapter of old Gowanus. I’m familiar with and friends with a lot of the people who were pushing back against the rezoning or trying to get concessions from the city regarding the rezoning.“ The rezoning of Gowanus has transformed it from an industrial area to a more commercial and residential neighborhood. “I really, really hope that I can stay here long term and grow with Gowanus, because there’s going to be a lot happening. Gowanus in 2025 is akin to Williamsburg in 2000. I think Gowanus in 2035 is going to look like how Williamsburg looks now.”
The full name of the shop, “Principles GI Coffee House” is a nod to an anti-war movement started by American veterans returning from the Vietnam War in the 1960s. “American veterans realized how atrocious war was. They started opening gathering spaces that could be a place for GI’s to relax and talk shit about the war. They had sessions with lawyers and activists on how to become a conscientious objector, how to safely go AWOL, and which countries GI’s could flee to that didn’t have extradition treaties with the United States.” The original GI coffee houses also engaged in social outreach with civic organizations, such as the Black Panthers. These shops were ultimately shut down after receiving bad press from within the military complex. “A bunch of politicians and law enforcement worked to shut all these places down, which they did by the mid-70s.”
A second wave of GI coffee houses was opened by veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars in the early 2000s. “I was in the Marine Corps from 2007 to 2011, and when I got out and moved to Portland, I got involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement.” Within that movement, Katie met several anti-war veterans who were a part of a now-defunct group called IVAW (Iraq Veterans Against the War). “After meeting these anti-war veterans, I learned about the larger anti-war, pro-peace veteran movement. I learned about all this history and kept it in my back pocket. When I wanted to open up a shop, I was thinking, ‘How do I frame the idea of the shop? It was to put it in the lineage of a GI coffee-house. If there is such a thing, this would be a third-wave GI coffee-house.”
When Principles opened its doors to the public in June 2022, the growth was slow and organic. “I knew the first couple years would be really difficult as I built my reputation, but I’ve always focused on doing excellent coffee and creating an honest, authentic atmosphere. My hope is that if I focus on that and be true to myself and my principles, word will spread.” Another reason Katie was drawn to the Gowanus location was its size. The space enables her to host various community events. “I always thought of this as a gathering space that uses coffee to pay the bills. I didn’t want it to be just a cafe with chairs for people to sit on their laptops.”
Principles regularly hosts events that bring the cycling community into the space. “A lot of bikers will come here with ideas for events. My friend, Ralph, did a cycling video showcase here. There is also cycling yoga, where another biker teaches yoga to cyclists.“ Non-cycling events include coffee cuppings, art showcases, anti-war veteran events, and even community board meetings. “I’m on the community board, so I push to host the transportation subcommittee meetings here. I’ve had elected officials come here and do talks with constituents.”
Principles also hosts several alleycat races each year. An alleycat is a race where riders follow a manifest, stop at designated checkpoints, and use their knowledge of the city to find the quickest route to the end point. “My very first event that I threw was an alleycat to mark the opening of the shop. Alleycats come from the bike messenger world. In their free time, messengers would organize races to showcase their skills, which emulated their workday. First place would get all the money that people paid to enter the race. Every year I do a birthday alley cat for the shop in addition to a few other alley cats.” Beyond alleycats, Katie leads monthly weekend coffee crawls. These are social rides that include multiple coffee stops along the route. “It’s usually three or four hours. People can come and go as they please. It’s usually a core of ten or twenty people. It’s a really fun, chill intro to group riding and a great way to meet other coffee shops in the area.”
Katie’s experience as a ride leader began in 2019 with Queer Joyride (Formerly FWOD). FWOD was a WTF (women, trans, femme) cycling social group that started sometime in the early 2010s. Over time, the group has evolved to become more gender-inclusive. “Other ride leaders and I wanted a space that was decidedly queer, but was open to anyone. We noticed there were largely two trans groups of people that weren’t comfortable showing up to a ride that was really gender exclusive. Trans men who were very passing felt uncomfortable because it was like, ‘Oh, you don’t want men.’ And then baby trans women who maybe didn’t pass. They felt uncomfortable in a group that was gender defined because they weren’t ready to be out yet.” Ultimately, Queer Joyride has evolved into a welcoming, inclusive space for all queer individuals. “We wanted a space for people to explore their queerness. We decided that we will have a queer ride that is led by queer people, for queer people. We do that ride every Tuesday, weather permitting.”
If leading multiple group rides wasn’t enough, Katie has recently become interested in long-distance endurance rides. “I got into randonneuring about a year ago. The culminating event in the randonneuring bike world is Paris-Brest-Paris, or PBP. It’s an event that started in the 1890s and predates the Tour de France.” This event is held every four years and requires participants to bike from Paris to Brest and then back to Paris for a total of 750 miles. The ride is non-competitive and must be completed in under 90 hours. “Professional cyclists are barred from doing randonneuring events, and there is no placing. It’s either you finish within the time limit or you don’t.”
Katie noted that there are randonneuring clubs and events worldwide. “It’s a really fun, challenging way to bike. It’s a lot of time in the saddle, but it’s a fun way to explore various regions of the country and different countries all over the world.” Katie has recently begun participating in randonneuring events during her free time. “It takes at least a whole day. If I’m going out of town to do a ride, I generally have to go there the day before because rides usually start around sunrise.” These randonneuring events serve as a great way for Katie to step away from her professional life while enjoying one of her favorite hobbies. “It’s become a fun, solo-ish way to ride, and it gets me away from the shop. It forces me to think about anything other than being there working.” Although she typically uses randonneuring as an escape from Principles, there will be a randonneuring event at the shop this fall. “I do have a 200K randonneuring event happening here Saturday, November 1st.” Information about this event can be found at njrandonneurs.org/brooklyn-200k.
As for the future of Principles, Katie hopes to remain a community staple. “From day one, I have hoped for this to be my last job. I want to do this until I’m done working. I really want to be the classic, old school owner/operator/shopkeep.” Katie stressed that her hope for Principles is continual growth that will allow her to create stable jobs for her employees and a home away from home for her customers. “I’ve really tried to create this space as my living room. That was sort of what guided a lot of just building it out. I like people, I like having people over, and I like inviting friends to come hang out at my place. I want this to be a continual open invitation for people to come over and hang out at my place.”