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The owners wish a hops-and-beans menu will variegate Oldtown’s offerings and move a village together.
Kate Cimini, The Californian
The smell of coffee wafts out of a front doorway of a Beerded Bean, Salinas’ newest cafe.
And yes, that’s how it’s spelled.
The Beerded Bean, that non-stop in Oldtown in late May, joins circuitously Cherry Bean Coffee, Starbucks and Gold Leaf Tea Spices in a prohibited libation game. Unlike a others, however, The Beerded Bean will also sell qualification beer once a assent is approved, a reason behind a name and logo.
The cafe-beer-live song combo was dreamt adult by co-owners Eric Del Real and Ernesto “Ness” Rodriguez.
Del Real and Rodriguez had been offered their coffee underneath a tag “Beerded Bean” for over a year now. In Dec 2017, before a dual partnered up, Del Real jumped in during a Salinas farmer’s market on Gabilan, manning a tent Saturday mornings, verbatim feet from where their cafeteria would eventually find a home.
Last June, a dual longtime friends and former coworkers reconnected and scarcely immediately hatched a devise to put a cafeteria in a sell location. But prolonged before a doors non-stop in Oldtown, a Beerded Bean was born.
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In 2012, Del Real dreamt of owning a mobile coffee shop. A former Starbucks barista, he saw a hole in a market: East- and North-siders had no place to go for a imagination frappuccino, a caramel macchiato, or anything other than elementary season coffee in a center of a workday.
“(I wanted) to move specialty coffees to a hinterland of Salinas,” pronounced Del Real. “Not everybody has a oppulance to leave their pursuit in a center of a day and mount in line during a corporate place — or any place — for 30, 40 minutes.”
While during initial Del Real hoped to open a mobile cafe — like a food truck, but for coffee — he shortly gave adult that idea. The watchful list for a food lorry assent was too long, he said, and a appropriation fell through. He kept during it, though, offered coffee during farmer’s markets while operative full-time in a medical field.
“The passion for coffee never left me,” Del Real said.
After Del Real and Rodriguez reconnected in June, they motionless to burst feet-first into business with any other.
“Life brought us together fifteen years later, and we’re here now,” pronounced Rodriguez.
In May, Del Real and Rodriguez non-stop The Beerded Bean, that they wish will yield a entertainment space for a community, one that is both gentle and conversation-inducing.
“It’s fed us in so many ways,” pronounced Rodriguez. “Connecting with people in a community, it’s given us some-more of a clarity of purpose, we would say.”
Inside, blended beverages, like Nutella frappes or vanilla bean cremes are on offer, served alongside bottles of canela (cinnamon) cold brew, flow over coffees and Mexican mochas.
Daniel Denoyer, who works during a internal law firm, gave The Beerded Bean a try for a initial time Wednesday due to his “extreme need for coffee,” picking adult a gallon of coffee for his office.
“My coffee builder broke, so it’s ideal timing,” he said.
Customers can squeeze bags of small-batch roasted coffee in-store or online, as good as a common sell — t-shirts, coffee mugs, and some-more — in further to coffees and teas.
Although splash is not nonetheless on a menu, Del Real expects to start charity it within 6 weeks, charity a brew of internal qualification brews and out-of-state suds, with all from stouts to double IPAs a possibility.
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“We usually have 6 taps so we need to keep it fun,” pronounced Rodriguez. He combined that they devise to embody daub room takeovers by internal breweries.
Customers Casey and Tina Aguilar, who possess and run Rustic Roasting Co. in Gonzales, showed adult Wednesday to support another internal coffee business.
Tina, who flashy Rustic Roasting Co., was tender by a urban-rustic taste of a Beerded Bean. She followed a building routine on Instagram and saw a pattern combined from scratch.
“We saw them banishment this wood,” she said, rub-down a glossy, dim timber list tops, “and we saw them put their trademark on, branding it. It’s unequivocally flattering here.”
Casey, a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur, was perplexing out a cold brew and was extraordinary about a forms of beans Del Real used to make a drink.
“I consider it’s going to emanate a opposite vibe, generally in a downtown area,” pronounced Casey. “I consider that’s great, and a approach that a coffee attention is with a lot of qualification coffee, and a approach that splash is already forward of that with qualification beer, bringing those both together will be really cool.”
“They got that going for them,” added Tina. “I don’t consider any other place around there has that so it gives them a small bit of an edge.”
The Beerded Bean is located during 210 S. Main St. in Salinas. You can revisit them on Instagram @thebeerdedbean or their website, thebeerdedbean.com.
Kate Cimini is a multimedia publisher for The Californian. Have a tip? Call her during (831) 776-5137 or email kcimini@thecalifornian.com. Subscribeto support internal journalism.