Today we’d like to introduce you to James Kroll.
Hi James, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’ve always wanted to build something from the ground up, it was just a matter of what it was going to be. I graduated from William and Mary with a Bachelors in International Relations, and a Minor in Russian Post-Soviet Studies, so, of course, a coffee business was the next logical step. Column 15 started in a basement office back in 2018 with a few people around a conference table, some laptops, and a bunch of ideas to develop a science and quality-oriented coffee company, with a focus on Nitro Cold Brew as its flagship product. Working out of a shared-use roastery and kitchen, we developed our product, customized roast profiles for our brewing process, and market-tested it through over a half dozen local farmers markets. At the time, Nitro Cold Brew was largely unheard of on the east coast. It was an immediate hit, so we went all in with plans to develop and open a full production facility to roast coffee and brew cold brew on a wholesale distribution scale, covering coastal Virginia from Richmond down to Norfolk and Virginia Beach. To get the word out, we gave out over 30,000 free samples in our first year.
By mid 2021, we launched our Column 15 Cafe & Roastery as a hybrid facility with our roasting and manufacturing operations in the back and a cafe to showcase everything Column 15 had to offer in the front. In 2023, we opened an on-campus cafe in the Swem library at the College of William and Mary. By 2024, we outgrew our main facility and expanded to encompass over 5,000 square feet, including an event space, outdoor seating, and tours/tastings on the manufacturing side of the business. In 2025, we partnered with the Mariners Museum in Newport News to operate a Cafe near their entrance and by the Noland Trail. Today, we’re continuing to expand our partnerships with local businesses and community organizations, and you can find our Nitro Cold Brew on tap and our hot coffee being served in coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, breweries, grocery stores, and office spaces across coastal Virginia from Richmond, Williamsburg, and Virginia Beach.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth isn’t the first word I’d use to describe this road. I love what I do, I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but the workload, patience, and problem-solving required isn’t for everyone. Challenges and struggles were there every step of the way.
Covid-19, for instance, was a big hurdle. In 2019 Column 15 rapidly built out a client list of nearly 40 local businesses who we distributed coffee and Nitro Cold Brew to, but when Covid hit in early 2020, we lost all but 3 in the space of a few weeks. We had to pivot our business model hard and fast to rely heavily on online orders, doorstep delivery, outdoor farmers markets, and a simple to-go coffee bar a few doors down from our main buildout project for a roastery. This, along with radical cost cutting, and some incredibly helpful grant opportunities from local government, allowed us to survive long enough to re-establish ourselves.
From the moment we decided where our cafe/roastery would be, it took us from November of 2018 till May 15th 2021 before we would finally get to our grand opening. With lease negotiations, licensing, contractors, and facility build-out, Murphy’s Law was in full effect, and everything that could go wrong, did — dragging out and delaying our chance to grow. After surviving 2.5 years, when we finally got our doors open, the results were staggering. We had over 1,000 guests show up to our grand opening, and it was amazing to see how warmly the local community welcomed us. Getting through that delay took everything we had, supporting the business through a truly prolific amount of farmers markets (6-9 per week).
Column 15 could have never made it to what we are today without an amazing team of founders and general managers, all of whom have left their own indelible marks on what we have become. The challenges have never stopped, and we never expect them to, but with everything learned and built, I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish and hopeful for where Column15 is going.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Column 15 focuses on quality, with a heavy emphasis on our Nitro Cold Brew. Even our name, “Column 15”, is a reference to the fifteenth column of the periodic table of elements, also known as the Nitrogen Family. Our signature O logo is a cross between a bean, and Dalton’s alchemy symbol for nitrogen. We roast coffee to specs we designed specifically for the cold brew process, and then a long, low heat extraction process over hours instead of minutes gives it the low acidity and smooth taste that cold brew is known for. With a nitrogen infusion, 10’s of thousands of microscopic bubbles, so small that they thicken the beverage rather than immediately rising, give it that unique smooth creaminess and visual cascade effect. Through being able to craft this delicious drink from roasting to final pour, we have created 3 different types of Nitro Cold Brew coffee.
From the beginning, we focused on using exclusively Fair Trade, Organic, Specialty Grade coffee, with freshness being at the forefront of our model. Beyond that and our signature Nitro Cold Brew, there have been a few innovations along the way that have become iconic for Column 15, most notably our latte flights and nitro creme flights. A picture is worth a thousand words on these, and our team crafts them to be as visually striking as they are delicious. While the flavored flights aren’t for everyone, any of our Nitro Cold Brew regulars will tell you about our frozen spheres of coffee that come standard in all our cold coffee beverages. The surface area to volume ratio of a sphere slows the melt rate down, keeping the drink cold for a longer period of time, and most importantly, does not dilute the drink over time. Another thing that keeps our guests coming back is our diverse seasonal menus, released every 1-2 months, which allows our talented team to unleash their creativity in a fun way that all our regulars enjoy.
While our main cafe in Williamsburg showcases all things Column 15, including an event space and a full-kitchen, our coffee can be found in other businesses all over this side of Virginia. For any office space or establishment that serves coffee, we have a wholesale program ready to supply and support, and that has been the main drive of our growth and expansion this year.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
By far the biggest takeaway I’ve had from all this is that people are everything. If I have to point to one aspect of Column 15 and say “this is our business,” I could make a case for the beautiful space, the innovative products developed, or the equipment we’ve accumulated that facilitates every step of our process, but ultimately I’d have to point to the team. The cafe staff who brighten our guests’ days, the production crew who ensures everything we put out represents us well, the managers that hold our departments together even on the days where it feels like everything’s going wrong, and the people who have supported me and the behind-the-scenes operations needed to make every gear turn; they make so much of an impact on who and what we are, and allow us to grow, more than any space, equipment or coffee possibly could. Without a cohesive, incredible team, we wouldn’t be what Column 15 is today, fulfilling our mission to proudly serve the peninsula with excellent craft coffee and attentive service one customer at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.column15.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/column15_coffee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Column15/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/column-15-williamsburg?osq=column+15
- Other: https://www.column15.com/rent-our-space
