Epigram Coffee brews new life into a historic Harpers Ferry house.
Nate Shapiro didn’t set out to open a small coffee shop that would make big waves in Harpers Ferry. But fans from there and beyond are glad he did.
After going to college in Virginia, culinary school in Vermont, then back to Virginia to work at the prestigious Inn at Little Washington, his life took an unexpected turn. In the kitchen at Little Washington was where he met Katie. He would later marry her and follow her to West Virginia, where she opened Bolivar Bread—another local hotspot.
And helping her get the bakery started is what gave rise to his own next adventure.
“I’d had several restaurant jobs, but my passion for fine dining started to fade once I saw what Katie was doing at Bolivar Bread,” he says. “She was meeting great people and making wonderful food from scratch and serving the community—and I got to help build that. It made me realize this was more than just another place to live. This was home.”
That inspired him to want to stay in West Virginia and create something special himself. And what pairs well with delicious scratch-made baked goods? Equally top-notch coffee. “I really felt that was my calling.”
The result is Epigram Coffee, tucked away in a historic stone home at 460 Washington Street. But it took plenty of percolating for that dream to become reality. He’d had his eye on that location, but the house hadn’t been lived in for 50 years. He had no idea what shape it was in, but thoughts of what “could be” kept nagging him and, fortunately, the property was owned by people he knew.
“The building has this amazing stonework they really wanted people to enjoy, and they wanted it to stay in local hands, so we finally pitched our idea to renovate the space and open a really good coffee shop there. They said that would be amazing, so we got to work. And the second we opened”—in October 2025—“people in town went nuts, because everyone had walked by this building many times but had never been inside it.”
Now the location is brewing with new life, greeting locals, Appalachian Trail hikers, and visitors with an old fireplace, incredible stonework, and artifacts that were found during the site’s excavation 200 years ago and are now incorporated into the building’s walls. “People love to come in and see new items in the walls they hadn’t seen before,” Shapiro says. It’s that sense of surprise, in fact, that inspired the shop’s very name.
“Epigram is a literary term meaning a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising statement. It really sums up the vibe here. Oscar Wilde, one of my favorite authors, is known for his epigrams, and one of our drinks is named after him: the Oscar Wilde & Wonderful.”
That double shot of espresso with hickory syrup and oat milk joins other specialties like the Apple-Atcha with spiced apple syrup and cardamom milk; The Malt-Man Prophecy with malted milk, ginger, and chocolate syrup; and the “most popular by far” Banana-Gram with banana oleo saccharum, banana milk, and nutmeg.
They join a mouthwatering array of gorgeous pastries like Pain au Chocolat, Canelé de Bordeaux, Sorghum Stroopwafel, Salted Chocolate Oat Shortbread, and croissants. Everything is made from scratch, Shapiro explains, because he believes it really does make a difference.
“People ask if we really make the croissants from scratch. We sure do! Since rezoning the building for commercial use took longer than expected, I had lots of time to perfect that recipe, and I’m really proud of them. I’ve had people tell me they used to live in France and these are still the best croissants they’ve ever had. That melts my heart every time I hear it.”
And they obviously put a lot of thought into their coffee, from the roasters they source to the espresso machines they use to the ingredients that flavor each drink. It’s that attention to detail that people notice. “Customers are always asking me why our coffee is so good. I’m like, ‘You got a minute?’” he says with a laugh. “I’ll tell you!”
He’s grateful for the love—and the opportunity to make people happy.
460 Washington Street, Harpers Ferry, epigram-coffee.com, “Epigram Coffee” on FB
READ MORE STORIES FROM OUR FALL 2026 ISSUE
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