On any given morning, Witherspoon Street’s Small World Coffee is packed with students studying between classes, professionals grabbing a quick cup to go, and old friends chatting over a warm beverage. The line almost always stretches out the door.
The shop’s air is thick with the scent of coffee beans and morning blends. Bags line the shelves across the aisle from the register, each small parcel bearing unique titles, like “Crispy Hippie,” “Morning Glory,” and “Love Blend.”
The baristas, or “Worldlings,” working behind the bar, click portafilters into espresso machines, occasionally yelling out the names of drinks (“Joe to go! Mocha with whipped cream! Iced Americano?”). A witty sign that reads “How have you bean?” hangs over the tip jar.
Small World celebrated its 30th anniversary in December 2023. Before owners and creators Jessica Durrie, also known as JD, and Brant Cosaboom brought their business idea to town, Princeton was lacking in coffee shops. Today, Small World operates two locations: one on Witherspoon St. and second on Nassau St., which opened in 2006.
The Daily Princetonian spoke with Durrie and employees at Small World Coffee to look at the origins and significance behind this community establishment, 30 years in the making.
The beginnings: ‘It felt obvious to me that this was the town’
Spending her childhood as an expat overseas, Durrie felt like a “fish out of water” as a student at the University of Michigan. After a year and a half, she dropped out and began “soul searching,” moving out to California.
Although she began working in restaurants to “pay the bills,” she soon “fell in love with the industry, and with hospitality and food and wine.”
She later got her undergraduate degree from Cornell Nolan School of Hotel Administration, after two and a half years of work experience. But, on a trip to Vienna to visit her brother, Durrie found her attention drawn to the coffee shops.
“I started visiting all the old world cafes there,” Durrie said. “And that's when I decided I wasn't going to open a restaurant, I wanted to open a coffee shop.”
After college, Durrie went straight to Michigan, rejecting other job offers to instead work at a coffee shop in Ann Arbor. “I wanted to learn the business from the bottom up,” she said. “And that's where I met Brant, at the coffee shop that we both worked at.”
The coffee shop was initially Durrie’s idea, and after some work in California, Cosaboom and Durrie both decided to pursue opening their own coffee shop.
“It was very strategic,” Durrie emphasized. “It wasn't this pie-in-the-sky idea, it was strategy and research…coupled with our practical experience and my degree from Cornell.”
After nine months “off and on” the road looking for the perfect location for their coffee shop, Durrie and Cosaboom landed in Princeton in 1993. They had originally “written [it] off,” because they thought the town was too small.
However, their minds were quickly changed.
“When we drove into the downtown, it was immediate,” Durrie said. “We saw the foot traffic, we saw the walkability, the retail mix, it was all there. It felt obvious to me that this was the town."
Durrie and Cosaboom immediately moved to town and started “pounding the pavement trying to get a landlord to rent to a 25-year-old and a 27-year-old.”
The name “Small World Coffee” was conceptualized during one of their 1993 road trips, and immediately resonated with both of them due to their shared experience as expats.
“When you grow up that way,” Durrie explained, “you start to see the commonality of all people, despite their cultural differences.”
For Durrie, her experience consistently having to find a sense of belonging has informed the ethos of Small World Coffee. Now, she reflects, “creating a sense of belonging [has] been sort of the backbone of the work that I've always done.”
Fostering community ‘from the inside out’
Durrie believes that this belonging and community is created “from the inside out,” and noted that creating a sense of belonging for employees is integral for creating the same feeling for customers.
She added, “I think that we get the most out of people, the most out of humanity, when we all feel a sense of belonging, and then from there, we can do all sorts of amazing things.”
Durrie also noted the relationships Small World Coffee has cultivated within the community.
“The depth of relationships that have occurred behind that counter is insane,” Durrie said. “That web of relationships is a beautiful thing.”
Vincent Jule, the General Manager of Small World Coffee, oversees both the Nassau and Witherspoon locations. Jule, who has been with Small World for 23 years, described his experience working with the other Small World employees.
“One of the things that keeps [the Worldlings] around are the people that they work with, and the people that they meet,” Jule said. He added that Durrie and Cosaboom help to instill a “solid work ethic and sense of pride [and] integrity in what we do.”
When he was a new employee, Jule was impressed by the availability and involvement of Small World’s ownership, even seeing the owners washing dishes every now and then. “It always feels like a very collective experience.”
In 1997, Small World Roasters was created. “It's an integral part of the brand…having control over the quality of our coffee beans,” Durrie said. The roastery provides the blends offered for purchase in the shop, from “Colombian” to “Grumpy Monkey.”
The roastery has also allowed Small World to broaden their customer base to spaces like Witherspoon’s Café in Frist Campus Center, as well as farther away through mail orders. The roastery has over 60 wholesale customers, including The Bent Spoon, several eating clubs, many Whole Foods stores, and the Institute for Advanced Study.
Small World is also home to local artistry, displaying new art exhibits every month on the walls of the shop. The Witherspoon location hosts free public concerts on Saturday nights, featuring local bands who play their original songs. Jule said he tries to shed light on local musicians who don’t usually have the same amount of opportunities as cover bands.
Behind the register: the ‘Worldlings’
Grace Phillips has been a Worldling at Small World Coffee for two years. Phillips grew up in West Windsor, and visited Small World and Princeton when she was younger.
After working in advertising copywriting for a decade, Phillips quit her job during the pandemic and applied to work at Small World Coffee. She wanted to do something that made her “feel like [she] accomplished something very specific at the end of the day.” Small World gave her that opportunity.
A typical day as a Worldling starts half an hour before opening. Rush times include the morning before people go to work, in between classes, or during coffee breaks. Worldlings spend an hour at each station during their shifts: the register, the espresso machine, bus station, and cleaning. Because the job can be very fast-paced, the rotation system prevents the Worldlings from burning out.
Jule estimates that Small World Coffee serves around 1,000 customers a day.
As a Worldling, Phillips has the opportunity to see the impact Small World has on its customers, residents, tourists, and students alike. She remarked on the interactions she has with tourists visiting the coffee shop, and she often directs them to fellow Princeton establishments in the area.
Phillips reflects on the “camaraderie” between Princeton shops, noting that employees from these establishments come to Small World as well.
“Princeton’s very busy. It’s small, but heavily trafficked,” Phillips said. “Even if we don’t know each other by name, necessarily, we all have each other's back[s].”
Phillips also reflected on how common the Pay with Points program has become since it was launched. She noted that there are some days and hours in which almost “every other transaction is a [Pay with Points] one.”
Phillips noted that the Worldlings at Small World aren’t unionized. “We are treated very well,” she explained. “There are very few service jobs that pay as well as this one, there are very few service jobs that have benefits, retirement, vacation, anything like that.”
Phillips also noted the ease with which she feels she can interact with the owners of Small World and raise complaints if necessary.
Durrie also commented on the treatment of Small World employees, citing fair compensation as the reason for the coffee shop’s “excellent employee retention.”
A Princetonian staple: Just ‘really Princeton’
Small World Coffee is familiar to many Princeton students and residents. Siyeon Lee ‘27 studies at Small World almost every day, taking advantage of the Pay with Points partnership between the coffee shop and the University. Her go-to drink? “A light iced matcha to-go,” she said, without hesitation.
Lee is an assistant Opinion editor for the ‘Prince.’
For Lee, Small World is “really Princeton.” The coffee shop is a place where she sees “familiar faces,” and finds a unique community space for students off-campus. She visited Small World for the first time on move-in day.
“It felt like a movie when I walked in,” Lee said. “Kind of ‘Gilmore Girls’ vibes.”
She also notes that the continuous crowd and smaller space at Small World “fosters a communal vibe.”
To Jule, this sense of community is Small World’s mission, with coffee being a “vehicle for bringing people together.”
Mira Eashwaran is a staff Features writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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