Lead Barista

hacco is seeking an experienced, curious, and highly motivated Lead Barista to join our opening team in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

hacco is a new bakery café concept centered around koji — the fermentation culture at the heart of Japanese food traditions. Through coffee, beverages, bread, pastry, sandwiches, and culinary creations, we are exploring how koji can bring new depth, flavor, texture, and possibility to contemporary food.

As Lead Barista, you will play an important role in helping establish hacco’s beverage program from the beginning. Working closely with our Beverage Manager and front-of-house team, you will help build the standards, workflows, training practices, and service culture that define the daily beverage experience at hacco.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will work behind the bar alongside the team while helping maintain high standards for espresso, milk preparation, beverage consistency, speed, cleanliness, and hospitality.

Our beverage program will also explore applications of koji and fermentation, including our koji-based barista beverage. Prior experience with koji is not required — curiosity and a willingness to learn are.

What You’ll Do

• Prepare and serve hacco’s beverage menu with consistency, precision, and attention to detail, with a particular focus on lattes and matcha lattes made with Organic KOJI BARISTA, hacco’s koji-based barista beverage.
• Produce clean, consistent, and visually refined latte art, with careful attention to texture, temperature, presentation, and beverage balance.
• Prepare pour-over coffee with close attention to grind size, ratio, water temperature, extraction, and flavor.
• Dial in espresso at the beginning of each day, evaluating dose, yield, extraction time, and taste to establish appropriate brewing parameters for service.
• Monitor espresso extraction and beverage quality throughout the day and make adjustments when needed.
• Prepare and serve hacco’s soft serve, maintaining consistent portioning, texture, presentation, cleanliness, and service standards.
• Help ensure that beverage and soft-serve recipes, ratios, techniques, and quality standards are consistently followed by the team.
• Help establish and maintain beverage recipes, workflows, opening and closing procedures, and quality-control standards.
• Work closely with the Beverage Manager on training, quality control, beverage standards, and daily bar operations.
• Help lead the Barista team during daily service, supporting workflow, communication, and consistent execution.
• Train and support Baristas in espresso preparation, Organic KOJI BARISTA handling and steaming, latte art, matcha preparation, pour-over, and other beverage techniques.
• Maintain a clean, organized, efficient, and food-safe bar and soft-serve service area.
• Monitor supplies and communicate inventory and ordering needs.
• Provide warm, knowledgeable, and professional hospitality and help guests understand hacco’s beverages, Organic KOJI BARISTA, and the role of koji when appropriate.
• Collaborate with bakery, pastry, culinary, and front-of-house teams on service and product development.
• Participate in tastings, beverage development, and experimentation as appropriate.
• Adapt to evolving systems, responsibilities, and priorities during pre-opening and the early stages of operation.
• Operate the POS system, accurately processing orders, payments, and modifications while maintaining smooth and attentive guest service.
• Help ensure efficient coordination between order taking, beverage preparation, soft-serve service, and product handoff, especially during busy periods.

What We’re Looking For

• 2+ years of professional barista or specialty coffee experience preferred.
• Strong espresso preparation and dial-in skills, including the ability to evaluate extraction by both measurements and taste.
• Strong steaming skills and the ability to produce consistent, refined latte art.
• Experience preparing or strong familiarity with matcha-based beverages.
• Experience with pour-over coffee and an understanding of the variables that affect extraction and flavor.
• A developed palate and the ability to recognize and correct beverage-quality issues.
• Ability to learn the characteristics of Organic KOJI BARISTA and establish consistent techniques for steaming, texture, and beverage preparation.
• Ability to maintain beverage and service quality during busy periods.
• Leadership experience is helpful, but a formal Lead Barista title is not required.
• Ability and willingness to coach and support other Baristas while working alongside them.
• Strong attention to cleanliness, organization, precision, and detail.
• Initiative, adaptability, and comfort working in the evolving environment of a new opening.
• Strong communication skills and a collaborative mindset.
• Genuine interest in hospitality and interacting warmly and professionally with guests.
• Curiosity about fermentation, koji, and new approaches to café beverages. Prior professional experience with koji is not required.

Why hacco

You’ll be joining hacco at the beginning.

Rather than stepping into an established coffee program, you will have the opportunity to help build its standards, workflows, training culture, and identity from the ground up.

We want to create an environment where talented people can contribute ideas, experiment, continue developing their craft, and learn from people working across coffee, baking, pastry, and culinary disciplines.

For us, koji is not simply an ingredient. We are interested in exploring what it can bring to coffee and café beverages — and in sharing those possibilities with our guests.

We’re looking for someone who wants to help build that with us.