Photo by Kevin H.

D.C.’s Peregrine Espresso is good. How good? Good enough to be the best coffeehouse on the East Coast, apparently.

WTOP reports that the coffee shop with three D.C. locations took top honors in the America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition in New York City, walking away with $2,500, a trophy and some serious bragging rights. Winning may not have been luck, but getting into the contest certainly was:

Originally, Peregrine applied to take part in the America’s Best Coffeehouse Competition in New York City but just missed the cut.

“They had selected seven (other) teams or seven coffee shops to compete in this competition for this particular region,” says barista Jeremy Sterner.

But Peregrine’s fortunes changed.

“One of the teams had to back out and we were called a week before the competition,” says Sterner.

So a team of three Peregrine baristas took a shot at it.

Peregrine opened its first D.C. location in Eastern Market in 2008, taking over the space once occupied by Murky Coffee. It wasn’t just the space that connected the two coffee shops, though—owner Ryan Jensen managed the Murky Coffee location, which had to close after owner Nick Cho was found to owe D.C. a ton in back taxes.

Since then, Peregrine has opened two other locations: 14th Street NW and Union Market.