Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison McNeice.
Allison, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We were both police officers (Jim – Moonachie PD and Allison – Montvale PD) and retired after 25 years of service. Being coffee shop owners is our second career! We have always loved coffee and decided to do something in retirement that would also benefit our younger son, Joe, who had special needs (our LLC name is “A Cup with Joe”). Our intention was to build something for both him and our older son, Sean, that they could do together, once we were ready to move into a true retirement phase of our lives. Sean actually decided to postpone attending college in order to help us get the business off the ground, and that’s when HE ultimately fell in love with coffee. Sean has been integral to our success and we are excited to watch him take Pour City to the next level!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We opened in October 2021 as part of a small, local coffee shop group. Around the 2 year mark, we made the business decision to separate and we rebranded as an independent roastery – and Pour City was born!
On February 20, 2024, our younger son, Joe, suddenly passed away at the age of 18 years old. There will never be the right words to explain how devastated we are and the grief we live with every day, but Joe’s presence is and will always be felt at the shop. There are reminders of him everywhere you look. The outpouring of love and support from our Pour City family has provided us the strength to continue, even on our hardest days, and we are truly grateful for that.
We are so fortunate to have found tremendous success as Pour City, and we are working hard to continue growing! We are currently building out an off-site facility to house our roasting and cold brew production equipment. This will allow more space for customers and an improved, efficient workflow space for our employees. It will also allow us to increase our coffee production for both retail and wholesale business!
As you know, we’re big fans of Pour City Roasters. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
All of our single origin coffee is carefully sourced and roasted in house by Jim (and our son, Sean!). Every cup of coffee is exclusively made pourover style – where each cup is pre-measured according to size and roast (currently offering 8 different roasts), ground and freshly brewed to order while you wait! We offer a convenient mobile app (just search “Pour City Roasters-NJ” – available for both Apple and Android users) and an online store (pourcityroasters.com). But we think our philosophy is what makes us the most unique: welcome each and every customer that takes the time to visit our shop, consistently serve the most delicious drinks, and say thanks for supporting your local “caffeine dealers”!
We have also won multiple local awards – including 201 Magazine’s “Best of Bergen” contest for “best local coffee” 4 years running! Additionally, we won “best coffee shop” for both Bergen Magazine and Daily Voice in 2025.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
The feedback we consistently receive is “this is exactly what this town needed!” Our welcoming, friendly atmosphere combined with the most delicious, quality coffee drinks make Pour City that “local coffee shop” the FLOW (Franklin Lakes/
Oakland/Wyckoff) area has been missing. Customers tell us we are the coffee version of the TV show ‘Cheers’ (cue “Where everybody knows your name”) – and we LOVE THAT! Learning everyone’s names and drinks is what we do, but Pour City has become more than just coffee – it has become a second family to us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pourcityroasters.com
- Instagram: @pourcityroasters
- Facebook: Pour City Roasters
- Other: pourcityroasters@gmail.com
