Gregorys Coffee’s First Monmouth County Café Opens in Manalapan — and the Founder Is Pouring Tomorrow
Gregorys Coffee
There's a special kind of confidence it takes to open a specialty coffee shop on Route 9 in Manalapan, where every third car is headed to a Dunkin' drive-thru. Gregorys Coffee just did exactly that, and they're making a statement about it: their new café at 360 Route 9 isn't just their first in Monmouth County, it's the company's first double-lane drive-thru anywhere.
Gregorys isn't some startup. Founder Gregory Zamfotis opened the first shop in Manhattan in 2006, and the brand has grown to more than 50 locations across the U.S. — part of the Craveworthy Brands portfolio. What built the following, though, is that Gregorys actually does the things most chains skip: they roast their own coffee, they bake pastries in-house every day, and the menu runs way deeper than lattes — espresso drinks, cold brews, teas, smoothies, and real food. This isn't a chain that figured out coffee as a business model. It's a coffee company that learned how to scale without turning into a syrup dispenser.
And this one's personal. "Having grown up in this area, opening our first Monmouth County café feels especially meaningful," Zamfotis said ahead of the opening. That's the kind of line founders say at every opening, but here it actually checks out — you can feel the homecoming energy in how they're treating this launch. They're not just unlocking the doors; they're throwing a two-day event.
Tonight (Wednesday, September 16), there's an invite-only Coffee & Chat from 6 to 8 p.m. where Zamfotis is doing live latte art demos and talking one-on-one with guests while baristas pour samples and hand out pastries. That's the warm-up.
Tomorrow, Thursday September 17, is the real show — and if you're in central Jersey, you should actually go. Here's the playbook:
From 5:30 a.m. to noon, small hot coffees and small cold brews are one dollar. That's a no-brainer. But the clever stuff is built around the clock. Order at the 20th minute of any hour — 8:20, 9:20, 10:20 — and your entire order is free, in-store or drive-thru. They're honoring the company's 20th anniversary. Order at the 28th minute — 8:28, 9:28 — and you get a bag of their Gregs House coffee signed by Zamfotis himself, which is his longtime lucky number and a genuinely cool souvenir if you're into coffee at all.
Zamfotis will be behind the counter and in the drive-thru himself from 8 to 10 a.m., and there's a community ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. A founder pouring your coffee at his own grand opening is a small thing, but it tells you how this company sees itself — the hospitality is the brand, not the other way around.
Now, the honest part. I've been watching the specialty coffee wave wash over New Jersey for years, and most of the time the good stuff stays in Hudson County and the shore towns. Monmouth County commuters have been stuck choosing between chain drive-thrus and whatever's next to the dry cleaner. A double-lane drive-thru from a brand that roasts its own beans and bakes daily? That's overdue, and Route 9 is the perfect proving ground. Morning commuter volume on that corridor is relentless, and if Gregorys can serve specialty quality at drive-thru speed, every coffee chain in the county is going to feel it.
The real test comes after the grand opening balloons are gone. Anyone can draw a crowd with dollar coffee and free orders. What matters is whether Manalapan turns them into Gregulars — that's what the company actually calls its regulars, and the name sticks because the experience does. Based on everything I've seen from this brand, I'd bet on it.
What to know: 360 Route 9, Manalapan. Grand opening celebration Thursday, September 17. $1 coffee 5:30 a.m.–noon; free orders at :20 past each hour; signed coffee bags at :28 past each hour; ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. Full menu and app at gregoryscoffee.com.
(One heads-up: the "Tonight (Wednesday)" paragraph refers to the 6–8pm VIP event that's already wrapped. Leave it as-is for the timeline or tweak it to past tense when you paste — your call.)