Compass Coffee is restructuring parts of its business and intends to use the Chapter 11 process to strengthen the company and position it for long-term viability in Washington, D.C. Our cafes remain open and operating, and Compass will continue serving customers across the city throughout this process.
Responding to a changing retail landscape
Washington’s economic and retail landscape has changed fundamentally since 2020. Downtown foot traffic and office occupancy remain well below pre-pandemic levels, and consumer demand has shifted away from the dense weekday patterns that once sustained many urban cafés. Retail models built for a different era, including legacy lease structures and fixed operating costs, no longer align with today’s reality.
Adapting for a more resilient future
This decision will enable Compass to address these legacy challenges, rebalance the business around current demand, and focus resources on its strongest neighborhood cafes. As part of this restructuring, Compass will also close its Ivy City roasting facility. The facility was built to support a scale of production that no longer matches today’s retail environment in Washington. Operating a large-scale manufacturing facility within the city is incompatible with the economics of the present moment. While this decision is difficult, it allows Compass to protect the core cafe business and operate with greater resilience going forward.
Compass is not alone in facing these pressures. Washington is experiencing a broad contraction across the restaurant and cafe sector, affecting national chains and local institutions. Rising costs, reduced foot traffic, and structural changes to work patterns have reshaped the economics of urban retail citywide. The Chapter 11 process provides Compass with a path to adapt to these realities while continuing to operate.
“As a fourth-generation Washingtonian, I started Compass to build something meaningful for this city and the people who show up for it every day,” said Michael Haft, Founder and CEO of Compass Coffee. “This has been a difficult chapter, and the decisions we’re making reflect the reality of this moment in Washington. They allow us to keep serving the city with the same real good coffee and sense of community that have defined Compass from the beginning.”
Building community
Since opening its first cafe on 7th Street more than a decade ago, Compass Coffee has grown to 25 cafes across the DMV. That original 7th Street location never closed for a single day. Compass cafés have been the backdrop for first dates that turned into marriages, job interviews that led to dream careers, and everyday moments that define life in Washington. Compass has supplied coffee to the White House across multiple presidential transitions, supported community initiatives ranging from military families and suicide prevention to local entrepreneurs, and shipped coffee to all 50 states and to service members deployed overseas.
Above all, Compass is proud of its team. Through federal shutdowns, the pandemic, and ongoing economic disruption, Compass team members have continued to show up with professionalism, care, and resilience. Most recently, Compass and its customers served more than 12,000 furloughed federal workers through the Fuel the Federal Workforce campaign, underscoring the role community continues to play in Washington.
A look towards what's ahead
Compass will continue operating throughout the Chapter 11 process and serving customers across the DMV. The company remains focused on stabilizing the business, supporting its team, and emerging with a structure aligned to the city’s current economic reality.
