Land to Sea Makes a Home for Its Neighbors in Williamsburg
July 21, 2026
by Kelly Rogers
Tucked into a line of shops along Graham Ave in Williamsburg, Land to Sea has quietly grown its community over coffee, Mahjong nights, book clubs, and workshops over the last five years. LTS and 4N share a similar ethos, with a focus on connection through culture, and we saw the perfect opportunity to collaborate for our Issue 5 launch party, hosted at LTS on July 16. We wanted to get deeper into LTS’s story, and spoke with co-founder Emily Shum about what it means to show up for your neighbors, and how her life-long study of hospitality led her here.
Kelly Rogers: Something 4N and Land to Sea have in common is this energy we put into creating spaces and opportunities for gathering that we don’t see otherwise. It’s a word that gets thrown around a lot these days, but is unmistakable when you see it—What does “community” mean for you, and for Land to Sea?
Emily Shum: For us it’s this beautiful, complex (and incredibly challenging) thing, but oftentimes it happens naturally. Coffee shops have always been natural community-building spaces because they’re so accessible—you see the same folks every single day. It’s about sacrificing our time to hear their hardships, their frustrations, and sometimes it’s rallying together to get a trash can or a tree on our street corner. We share tools with our neighbors and give book recommendations. It’s about making space in all of our very busy lives to come together and better our local area. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be best friends with everyone, but it means that we all share the work to lay this foundation for long-term support, whatever that may mean.
KR: When did these sentiments around hospitality start to form for you?
ES: I’ve spent my whole life surrounded by the hospitality industry. My dad had a restaurant that he ran with my grandfather in Williamsburg. They don’t use the word “community,” but there is one there in unspoken terms. For us at LTS, it’s very much about people who connect over shared values and the desire to talk about our history and heritage. My mom came from Hong Kong, and my dad came from a region very close to Hong Kong, in China. New York City and areas of SoCal are some of the biggest hubs for Cantonese-speaking folks in the US. So I do feel a certain responsibility to maintain the language, history, and food. I’ve connected with so many people through that shared desire for heritage, but however we connect is welcome. And that’s why we run the gamut when it comes to different niches for programming.
KR: When you were younger, were there places outside of your family restaurant where you felt that same energy?
ES: Oh my god, yeah. The matriarch of my family, my grandmother, is no longer with us, but we always went to these big Chinese restaurants (big tea parlors) for dim sum or dinner. And I’m sure you’ve seen it—East Harbor, House of Joy, those kinds of restaurants. They were very popular where I grew up in Sunset Park, and we would go every Sunday morning, or whenever there was a birthday or a wedding. Even when the manager of a restaurant ended up at a different restaurant, we’d see them again and it would be the same—“Hello, how are you, how are the kids?” This is the first-generation or immigrant kind of community. They aren’t dissecting what it means to have community, it just comes naturally to them through this shared heritage.
KR: Right, people instinctively gravitate towards what is familiar and comforting. So these spaces became a reference for what your version of this could look like?
ES: Yeah, and I think that’s partially something that I take for granted now, finding organic spaces to have community. That’s really what we’re trying to create at LTS. I do feel like the word “community” oftentimes turns into a commodity, or something contrived. But when we stay true to what is important to us, what we enjoy doing, and what we think our friends would like to see, we aim for those kinds of events to gather around.
KR: Did you always think you would pursue hospitality, because of your family?
ES: I think it was a very subconscious decision, because it was something I knew so deeply that when the idea presented itself, it felt obvious. The other founder of LTS, Eva and I, went to FIT together, did a slew of internships, held multiple full-time jobs in corporate fashion, and something just didn’t feel right in my soul. In 2019 Eva called me and was like “Let’s just do it.” It felt so natural for us to start to build it. The first-ever name for Land to Sea was “Workshop,” intended to be something in flux, a kind of blank space that could be many different things—an idea we conceived at Winson Bakery.
KR: How did your family react to you pursuing your own business?
ES: I think a lot of children of immigrants share a similar story, which is our parents always say “I worked hard so you don’t have to.” So when you give up the lifestyle of going to an office every day, having health insurance and paid time off, leaving that for an unstable lifestyle of constantly working with your hands…it’s a very physically demanding job. But eventually they understood that whatever itch I needed to scratch ultimately came from them.
KR: I can also see how, as veterans of the industry, they would be eager to offer advice and guidance. But you’re trying to make your own way and have your own journey figuring it out.
ES: Yeah, we’ve had to do some work on that in the past few years. But a lot of the things in the store come from them. My dad helped me install the ceiling tiles, and we have my mom’s recipe for Hong Kong milk tea.
KR: It’s your branch of the family business, in a way.
ES: Yeah. In the same way that their restaurant was theirs. At the end of the day, we’re a community coffee shop.
KR: Your approach to coffee is also on theme—made locally at a communal roaster.
ES: Yes, we do everything in Brooklyn. Since 2022 we’ve been part of Shared Roasting in Clinton Hill, which allows local brands and shops to use their facility to roast and package their own coffee. They help a lot of small businesses in New York City, and they’re amazing because it’s ultimately like a small independent cafe support group.
KR: How did you decide what Land to Sea’s original roasts would be like?
ES: We wanted to develop a palette that was specific and versatile enough for our flavors to stand up against. A lot of Cantonese people have very heavy flavor palettes, so we wanted something with lots of body, but still lots of versatility. We started ideating on different kinds of coffees, experimenting with roasts—it was a fully self-learned process.
We have a rotating single-origin drip coffee program, and we put a lot of time and energy into our signature specials. We want people to know how much thought goes into these.
KR: What is your process like for developing new specials?
ES: It’s very collaborative. We usually start ideating two and a half months before roll-out, jotting down ideas that we have, or flavors that we come across. My notes app is just the most random amalgamation of colors, flavors, textures, just random words. From there, I’ll sit down with my manager, Nguyen, and over the span of a few weeks we’re making and trying a bunch of different syrups, purees, cold foams, just total R&D madness. Eventually we get down to our favorites with the team, and that’s how they’re born.
KR: After five years of LTS, what’s surprised you about this endeavor?
ES: The city has changed, but I feel like our core mission is still the same. Our tagline is “Tastes like home.” When we talk about the shop, we’re talking about a home away from home. The most important thing for us (and ultimately in all hospitality spaces) is for people to feel welcome, and I’ve been able to watch people settle into this comfort in the shop.
We host Mahjong twice a month, and it’s usually the same folks who come by. They’ve even formed their own friendships outside of the shop, and go get dinner after playing together. After a year or two of coming to Mahjong, they basically close down the store with me—taking down all the tables, putting the Mahjong tiles back—like when you have friends over for dinner and they start helping you pick up the dishes. It very much feels like welcoming people into your home.
KR: That’s really special! I think it just speaks to the vibe that you guys have been able to create. It feels very community center-like, everyone’s stacking chairs at the end.
ES: Yeah, when people show that they’re invested in the space and take care of it like it’s their own, that’s so validating for us that we’re moving in the right direction.
KR: I think it can be intimidating too, though, to walk in as someone new, seeing an active community you want to tap into but maybe don’t know how to start. What advice would you give to those people?
ES: It is daunting to walk into a place and start a conversation, or ask your barista about this and that. Try to stretch past what you're comfortable with, remain open, and just try to start that conversation. Even if it’s just talking about what’s going on in the neighborhood at the moment. Or the weather! I love talking about the weather.
There’s definitely a stigma of New York City coffee shops being unapproachable, but coffee shops are meant to be places to chat and kiki—these spaces were built for that.