The Biggest US Coffee Shop Openings of 2017: West Coast

In 2017, Daily Coffee News has shared stories of more than 100 coffee shop openings in the United States alone.

Many of stories have followed the gritty determination of independent owners scratching and crawling through piles of municipal code, unforeseen flaws in building structures and systems, and any number of difficult matters related to people.

From being coated in drywall dust to standing behind a freshly powder-coated espresso machine, what these people bring forth are unique expressions — reflections of company, brand and, oftentimes, self. The idealized hope is that these expressions resonate with customers in order to provide financial means to survive in an increasingly competitive specialty retail landscape. If all goes exceptionally well, the really batty ones choose to do it all over again, sometimes five, six, seven times (perhaps until JAB comes knocking).

After poring over, so to speak, all of this year’s openings, we’ve broken our “biggest of” list into three regions: East Coast, West Coast, and No Coast. We should also offer a few caveats:

• Arbitrarily assigning regions within this vast country is an imperfect science that’s bound to offend the geopiety of many readers. For this, we apologize. In addition, we’ve also covered numerous openings of envelope-pushing shops outside the U.S. that are not mentioned here, and will continue to do so.
• We’re calling these the “biggest openings” of 2017, but we’re certain to have missed some along the way for any number of reasons — let’s borrow the recently popular coffee term “force majeure.” If you’re aware of an opening that particularly excited you this year, let us know! Better still, let us know what’s in store for 2018.

Caveats complete, here some of the most exciting shop openings of 2017, U.S. West Coast edition. We hope to see you there!

(Note: for other big openings, check out our “No Coast/Third Coast” and “East Coast” listings.)

Contraband Coffee Grows Legit Business With Second SF Cafe

In its first year of business on Nob Hill, San Francisco’s Contraband Coffee was bestowed the accolade of Best New Café by local print publication SF Weekly. It’s high praise considering the caliber of coffee to which many San Franciscans have grown accustomed through roaster/retailers such as Four Barrel, Sightglass Coffee, Ritual Coffee Roasters, Wrecking Ball Coffee, and the original outposts of Oakland-based Blue Bottle Coffee, to name just a few…[read more]

Coffee Shots and Creativity at Seattle’s Newest Haunt, Ghost Note Coffee

Coffee shots fly in the face of the specialty coffee industry’s accepted brewing practices. The method’s pioneer, Matt Perger, said so himself in the manual he wrote that was published by Mahlkonig about four years ago. Similarly, a ghost note flies in the face of what most people understand about music; a musical note, annotated on the staff, yet played so softly as not have any discernible pitch…[read more]

Prospect Coffee Roasters Digs Into Retail in Ventura, California

Historically, prospectors roamed the American West in search of gold, oil, and other hidden treasures. The same sort of thing happens everywhere today amid consumer trends in such industries as electronics, fashion, and haute cuisine…[read more]

Portland’s The Arbor Lodge is Now Tanager Coffee’s Official Retail Nest

Portland, Ore.-based wholesale roaster Tanager Coffee Roasters has just added a whole new wing, so to speak, taking ownership of neighborhood favorite café The Arbor Lodge, in North Portland…[read more]

Caffe Luxxe Opens Off Billionaire’s Beach in Malibu

Los Angeles roaster/retailer Caffe Luxxe, which celebrated its first decade in business last year, has opened its first new café in seven years, a bright, compact shop just steps away from Carbon Beach (a.k.a. “Billionaire’s Beach”) in Malibu, Calif…[read more]

In Fun-Loving Ocean Beach, OB Beans Opens its First Retail Cafe

The 4800 block of Newport Ave. in the heart of San Diego’s sunset-, smoke- and surf-loving Ocean Beach has become something of a brewery row within the past three years, with bar or tasting room openings from Kilowatt Brewing, Culture Brewing Co., and Belching Beaver Brewery…[read more]

After Years of Work, Sightglass Coffee Opens On San Francisco’s Divisadero

Last week, San Francisco mainstay Sightglass Coffee opened its fifth retail location in the city by the bay. At the corner of Divisadero and Page a block north of Lower Haight, the new 2,000-square-foot coffeehouse is the company’s third standalone shop, and its first to feature a walk-up window, providing passers-by with the opportunity to snag a quality coffee while hustling on their way…[read more]

Cafe X Multiroaster ‘Robotic Cafe’ Opens in San Francisco

Cafe X Technologies is launching its first U.S. kiosk in downtown San Francisco today, combining automated brewing technology, robotics, a tech-based ordering system, and participation from multiple roasting companies…[read more]

Narrative Coffee Spreads the Specialty Story in Everett, Washington

While Seattle is a longstanding coffee mecca, the culture of appreciation for specialty coffee tends to dwindle the farther you travel outside the city limits. Longtime barista Maxwell Mooney sees the untapped potential in the underserved markets of smaller cities and towns, especially as the cost of living in places like Seattle continues to rise…[read more]

Inside Camber Coffee’s Cultivated Flagship Cafe in Bellingham

In the small, coastal city of Bellingham, Wash., not far from the Canadian border, the quietly sophisticated, quality-forward roasting company Camber Coffee has been turning out lauded specialty coffees since late 2015, both for wholesale clients and in straightforward black retail bags with refined, wine-reminiscent labels…[read more]

Portland’s Coava Coffee Roasters Branches Out to San Diego

The quality-forward Portland, Ore., roasting company Coava Coffee Roasters, which earlier this year set out to more than double its retail footprint, has officially opened the second of its three planned new locations. Following the public brew bar within its deliberately spectacular new roastery that opened in the Spring, Coava’s first retail shop outside Portland city limits has now gone live in San Diego…[read more]

Handlebar Coffee Roasters Breaks Away with New Santa Barbara Roastery Café

Running two cafes and a growing roasting business can be a lot to handle. Thankfully for the Handlebar Coffee Roasters crew in Santa Barbara, California, nearly six years of experience roasting and serving coffee in their original downtown cafe has provided a firm grip on quality and keen sense of direction for their newly opened second café and roastery…[read more]

Coffee by Junior’s Served ‘As You Wish’ at Guilder in Portland

Incorporate the green coffee’s cost of production into the label on a bag of roasted coffee? Inconceivable! At least that’s what the nefarious Princess Bride character Vizzini might say at such a proposition…[read more]

Nossa Familia Opens Guatemala-Inspired Café in the Heart of Portland

Portland, Oregon-based roasting company Nossa Familia Coffee has opened a new café inspired by the people and culture of the Guatemalan coffeelands as part of its ongoing retail and production expansion efforts…[read more]

Stumptown Opens in Chicago, Reopens in Downtown Portland

It’s been a big end-of-year for Portland, Oregon-based Stumptown Coffee Roasters, which earlier this month reopened its redesigned downtown Portland location, and three days later made a splashy retail debut in Chicago…[read more]