One Shot Coffee & Cafe has anchored Northern Liberties since 2005, when founder Melissa Baruno, a Brooklyn transplant, opened a 20-seat coffee shop in the neighborhood’s newly built Liberties Walk. The cafe outgrew that space and moved in 2011 to its current two-story home on the corner of George and American, a converted rowhouse redesigned by SLDesign with reclaimed lumber, family heirlooms, and Philadelphia industrial antiques.
Baruno, who is non-binary, has built One Shot around inclusivity from the ground up: staff training on respecting all identities, a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, and a second-floor library and lounge that has become a daytime home base for the neighborhood’s queer community and remote workers alike.
The cafe pours direct-trade Stumptown coffee alongside its own small-batch Ox Coffee blend, plus rotating local roasters like ReAnimator and Rival Bros. Brunch runs daily: New American classics with international twists, made-from-scratch pastries, and weekly specials scrawled on butcher paper by the door.
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