On a sunny Saturday afternoon, after stuffing my face with dim sum at one of The Hague’s classic Chinese joints, I wandered towards a coffee bar that I had on my bucket list for some time. This coffee place is owned by the people behind one of The Hague’s microroasteries and I wanted to find out more. I initially thought the café was also called Roast Factory but as I arrived on its terrace, I realise it was, in fact, called Joejoe. Lateron I learned that it will soon be called Roast Factory. Might not come as a massive surprise to be honest.
What I found was a welcoming place with lots of terrace seating and some limited indoor seating. There is a large bar that stretches all the way back to the entrance of the small roastery, which is next door. I found the space to be a bit dark towards the front, but the radiating friendliness of the two baristas, Sonya and Thedros, gave me all the indoor sunshine I needed.
Roast Factory was founded by Stefan Coster in 2016 and after some years as working primarily as a wholesale roaster, he opened Joejoe in early 2023 to have somewhat of a showroom for his own coffees. Joejoe is a Dutch expression that is colloquially used to say ‘bye’ when you’re in a rush. Since Stefan used to deliver his coffees with a cargo bike, he was always zipping in and out and shouting ‘joejoe’ when visiting customers. Thus the name of the coffee bar but as I learned on site, JoeJoe will soon be renamed Roast Factory for internal reasons.
Though I did make it outside onto the terrace to sip my iced filter coffee prepared with a lovely natural processed Ethiopian coffee from Wuba, I spent most of my time chatting to Sonya and Thedros who made me feel super welcome. We gossipped and chatted about the local coffee scene and I washed Thedros make his signature latte art bunny whenever he got a chance.
Though The Hague’s coffee scene is still small and lacks more elevated concepts with trendy frozen coffee menus or a wide range of signature drinks like you find in other cities, it is a more familiar scene that is very much built around neighbourhoods. In Amsterdam, there are areas where various specialty coffeer shops are practically facing each other. In The Hague they are more evenly distributed.
Joejoe doesn’t have any freshly cooked breakfast options but it does have incredibly delicious sourdough focaccia sandwiches, cardamom and cinnamon rolls and a decent selection of fresh coffee. Next to your standard espresso-based drinks there is also a batch brew and the aforementioned iced coffee. I really enjoyed my visit there and really loved the wonderful hospitality shown to me by Sonya and Thedros.
