Anthony and Maggie Gerakos started roasting coffee in their Brooklyn apartment as a hobby — first in a cast-iron pan, then on a small sample roaster. When the pandemic rearranged their priorities, they followed something they'd been nudging toward for years and moved to Vermont. In October 2021, they opened Little Seed Coffee Roasters at 24 Merchants Row in Middlebury, in a historic Battell Block building with original tin ceilings and a 10-kilo roaster on the floor visible from the front of the shop.

The roaster is part of the point. Customers wander in and realize they're in a working roastery. "People come back and say, 'Oh, you're roasting,'" Maggie told Edible Vermont. The space is minimalist and bright, filled with plants, with the roaster just beyond the seating area — approachable, modern, warm, with the energy of a place people actually want to stay in.

The coffee is serious without being precious. Anthony and Maggie source single-origin beans seasonally from importers who pay above Fairtrade prices — the farmers' names are printed on the bags. The coffees tend toward washed processes with clean, distinctive notes. The espresso program runs on a Slayer Steam machine. The maple latte has its own following. The lattes are coffee-forward in the way lattes should be but often aren't.

Pastries come from local bakers. The food menu is intentionally light — a spinach feta pie, a ham and cheese roll, things that make sense with coffee. The focus is the cup.

Little Seed also has a cart (@littleseedcart) that pops up at other locations around the area, and their beans are available at a handful of other Vermont spots. But the Merchants Row shop — sunny interior, plants everywhere, tin ceiling, the smell of something being roasted in the back — is the real thing.

Little Seed Coffee Roasters
24 Merchants Row, Middlebury, VT | littleseed.coffee
Daily 8am–4pm | Dogs welcome outside