Flor. Coffee + Books, 1220 31st St., NW
During the pandemic, Florencia Agrazo began experiencing a bad case of anxiety. She began gratitude journaling and the practice bloomed—she even published her own series of gratitude journals. Nearly five years later, she and partner Marco Ferrario are opening Flor. Coffee + Books, a cafe in Georgetown, that she says is the physical manifestation of those habits. “The idea is to build a space where people can stop the rushing, so that they can be present,” Agrazo says. Flor. is the couple’s first foray into the coffee business, driven by their shared love of visiting cafes together.
The cozy two-story coffee shop and bookstore, nestled into a converted yellow rowhouse on 31st and M streets, soft-opened last week but will have a grand opening celebration on Friday, August 22 (the first hundred guests will get free coffee and mini tarot readings). Agrazo has stocked the second floor book shop with English and Spanish volumes about mental health, healthy cooking, and yes, gratitude. There’s even a “gratitude machine”—an old fashioned deli-ticket dispenser that Agrazo has filled with prompts like, “Recall a song or piece of art that uplifts you.”
Upstairs will have couch and table seating. “We want people to feel that they are entering a friend’s living room, their grandma’s house,” Agrazo says. “And to connect with this quiet environment where they can almost take their shoes off.”
The downstairs coffee bar, decorated with a mural of jacaranda trees, serves a special coffee blend from the neighborhood’s Grace Street Coffee Roaster. Non-coffee options include a nitro vanilla matcha, which Agrazo describes as their signature iced drink, as well as chai lattes and loose leaf teas. Flor. also serves two flavors of Dolcezza soft serve gelato, to satisfy any affogato cravings.
The food menu has been developed by rising star chef Jovana Urriola, who has also created menus at Cafe Unido and Colada Shop. Here, visitors will find American classics like sandwiches and breakfast bowls, with dressings and sauces inflected with Agrazo’s Argentinian heritage. Empanadas come with five fillings, such as chopped beef, ham-and-cheese, and pulled pork with honey barbecue sauce.
There’s also an impressive array of Argentinian pastries. They include medialunas, flaky croissants lightly glazed with syrup; alfajores, dulce de leche cookie sandwiches; and vigilantes, oblong flaky pastries filled with sweet cream on one side, and quince paste on the other. The menu offers several gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian options.
Flor is part of a mini wave of new Argentinian-inspired establishments in DC, including flower shop/bar Florería Atlántico and restaurant Brasero Atlántico—both opening soon in Georgetown—and 14th Street cocktail lounge Diosa.
