Hello, Kovella.

If you’ve followed us since the cart days, you know this place as Mercury: named, with love, for the statue that watches Rochester from the top of the Aqueduct Building. Even our green came from his oxidized copper.

This spring, a much larger coffee company with a very similar name and a federal trademark asked us to stop using it. We’re a two-person shop with a one-year-old; we picked our battle, and it wasn’t this one.

So: Kovella. The name comes from the three of us, and so does the mark: a robin for renewal, growth, and family, perched on an olive branch, with three small dots beside it, one each for Kyle, Izzy, and Oliver. After the year we had, the olive branch felt right. The lettering is drawn by hand, because everything here is. (The whole mark, explained →)

Nothing else changes. Kyle still dials in the espresso like it’s a cocktail. Izzy still runs the creative, top to bottom. The Upstate is still on the menu, and your usual is still your usual.

Thanks for a year in the shop, two on the cart, and whatever comes next.

Kyle, Izzy & Oliver