The Gillies Coffee Co. says it may be time to pack its beans and go.
The 163-year-old Brooklyn business has been ordered to pay a $400 fine for polluting the air with the smell of roasted coffee – and that has the owners steaming mad.
“There is nothing I can do to stop the smell of coffee,” said Hy Chabbott, a co-owner of the roasting and distribution warehouse. “If the [city] continues to find these smells offensive, we’re going to have to find another place to roast our coffee.”
Responding to a complaint last June, a city Environmental Protection Department inspector visited the 19th St. shop and discovered “heavy coffee odors.” With that, he issued a pollution code violation.
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2 comments
With a $5 million dollar per year income Gillies owner and partners can buy better roasters so that people do not have to smell the process. Roasting green coffee beans smells nothing like coffee, funeral homes can’t be stinking the place up with cheap equipment why should coffee roasters be allowed to. Gillies put in new roasting equipment in 1991, TEN YEARS AGO, old junk by todays standards, do you think his lawyer drives a ten year old car? Any person with allergies or an immune system illness would be glad for less stinky smells around town when they are out and about, that is if they can get out of their homes due to the side effects of their illness.
Dear Mr. Torontow:
Immune system problems? The company is located in an industrial zone for crying out loud. And 5 million dollars for a company that employs 30 plus people doesn’t, if you’ll pardon the unintended pun,amount to a hill of “beans.” Ground rent,power,heating,water and sewage costs added to employee wages, social security, health benefits, etc., city, state and local taxes, insurance to cover fire and theft. It’s a wonder they can keep their doors open as it is and the notion that some silly twit with their nose out of joint can force a 163 year-old company to relocate because of the unintended consequence of a poorly crafted law would be laughable, if it weren’t so tragic for all the people who will lose their jobs.—SBP