PERC

The bar is bright pink and the coffee behind it comes from Savannah. PERC roasts there and pours across several Atlanta rooms, in East Lake, Virginia-Highland, Grant Park, Chastain and Tucker, running on a simple line: world-class coffee, kept approachable and fun. Virginia-Highland opened in May 2021 after a decade of roasting and supplying the Southeast, and Grant Park followed as the fourth retail shop and the third in the city.

Savannah roasting, Atlanta pouring

Roasting happens on 15-kilogram and 35-kilogram Lorings, with Ikawa and Roest machines for sample roasting and profile work, and the output feeds cafes, retail bags and wholesale accounts alike. The bag list reads as a producer list: Ecuador Juan Pena in natural, advanced washed and tag team versions, Colombia Franky Hoyos across tag team, advanced washed and advanced natural, Colombia Andres Cardona purple honey, Kenya Mara Estate and a decaf from Rwanda Nyamasheke.

Espresso is the centre of the Atlanta build-out, with a La Marzocco on every bar and a two-group Linea PB AV anchoring Grant Park. The one deliberate outlier is Darrrk, the company’s first dark roast, a single-origin heirloom from Guji in Ethiopia built for heavy body, intense sweetness and roasty depth. Atlanta also holds the training centre, where baristas are taught and coffees dialled in, which gives the market a production role beyond service.

Rooms that look like the coffee tastes

The cafes share a bright identity and adapt it to their streets. Grant Park runs 1,579 square feet with twenty-two indoor seats and twenty-eight on a covered patio, finished in the company’s signature perky pastels around an open, two-tiered bar. A rainbow LED lightning bolt set into the front of that bar nods to the retail counter at the Savannah roastery.

Virginia-Highland took the opposite approach, opening as a walkable neighbourhood shop near complementary businesses and leaning on outdoor seating. Food is not a sideline: Virginia-Highland launched with house-made sandwiches and baked goods, and Grant Park runs a full kitchen turning out hot breakfast and lunch.

What to order

Espresso is the default read, since every bar is set up for it and the roast profiles are built with it in mind. For something with a producer’s name attached, ask which of the Juan Pena or Franky Hoyos lots is on and how it was processed, because the same farm appears in several versions and they taste like different coffees.

Darrrk is the order for anyone who wants weight rather than acidity. The signature drinks lean playful, which suits a company whose own line is that coffee should be a total blast, and a sandwich or a hot breakfast plate makes the visit more than a cup.