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Judy and Kirk Hayes dreamed of having a storefront for their coffee roasting business since establishing Craftsman Coffee in 2017. Then about a month ago, the husband-and-wife duo found the perfect commercial space in their hometown of Pacifica and signed a three-year lease within 72 hours.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Judy said. “I still feel that it hasn’t really set into reality yet. But we’re very, very excited.”
The grand opening of Craftsman Coffee’s brick-and-mortar is scheduled for sometime in March, Judy said. Previously, Craftsman Coffee’s operating hours and locations were variable with coffee only served to-go, as the company operated out of a 1961 vintage Citroen HY van. Judy said she’s now looking forward to customers having the option to not only order takeaway coffee, but to also stay and engage with each other.
“Coffee is such a social activity,” she said. “It connects people, it fosters conversations. It’s social and productive, and also many things happen in coffee shops, like ideas, passions, sparks of creativity, business plans, meeting new people that will eventually lead you to something else.”
In addition to their signature coffee drinks and whole roasted beans, the Hayeses are planning to offer a rotating selection of daily, locally-made pastries, sourced from bakeries like Pacifica-based Rosalind and San Francisco-based Sage Bakehouse and Black Jet Baking Co. Coffee will still be served out of the vintage van, now parked within the commercial space, and the layout will be “pretty open,” with “a lot of benches, a lot of stools” and a heated bench, said Judy.
“What we’re trying to nurture is a really open community space where people can bring their friends, engage folks to talk to people they don’t know, new neighbors or new friends,” she said. “We really want it to be a very loving open spot for folks to come and enjoy coffee and enjoy the space.”
Since acquiring the commercial space and working on preparations for the opening, the Hayeses temporarily halted regular mobile coffee truck service but are still selling beans and offering private catering. Having large roll-up doors in their new location allows the coffee truck to easily move out for catering events, but otherwise, the truck will operate out of the storefront daily.
Judy’s first memory of coffee was of a Singaporean coffee instant mix from an Asian grocery market in middle school. Growing up in San Francisco, she loved hanging out in coffee shops and immersing herself in the specialty coffee scene.
“When (Kirk and I) moved out of San Francisco, we just couldn’t find what we were looking for in Pacifica,” she said.
Taking weekend trips to Andytown Coffee Roasters in San Francisco became just a bit too cumbersome with twins, so she and her husband began experimenting with at-home coffee roasting, a process she said can be done with household appliances, like a popcorn maker or a cast iron skillet.
“It’s just a slippery slope,” Judy said. “It starts in your own home, and then you share it with friends and family, and from there, it’s just a fun, crazy, wild ride.”
And while Judy was always passionate about coffee, Craftsman Coffee is her first time working in coffee full time. She previously was a quality engineer in semiconductor and plastics manufacturing, and she’s worked in book publishing and in consumer packaged goods for Ghirardelli Chocolate.
Craftsman Coffee sells five unique blends of coffee beans, including its reserve blend, which features beans from Ethiopia, Brazil and Colombia and has notes of dark cacao and blueberry cherry pie. In addition to selling beans by the bag, priced at $19-20, Craftsman Coffee offers a subscription service – the Hayeses will pick out a bag of beans a month and ship it to you.
“Being able to source and roast and build the flavors together to something that we would personally love to drink and to be able to share that with friends and family in the community (is my favorite part about coffee roasting),” she said. “I think we’re just really excited to open up a space where people can come in and really enjoy a really open, safe, respectful, loving community.”
To stay up to date with the March opening, Judy recommends following Craftsman Coffee’s Instagram or checking its website.
Craftsman Coffee, 1750 Francisco Blvd., Pacifica. Instagram: @craftsman_coffee.