Offbeat Coffee is On Point in Sacramento

Inside the Offbeat Coffee shop in Sacramento, California. All images courtesy of Offbeat Coffee.

The tempo is running fast at the first brick-and-mortar location of Sacramento, California’s Offbeat Coffee, which held a soft opening last week.

In a long, 3,000-square-foot space, wooden furniture, concrete floors and earthy ceramics establish a laid-back, grounded tone. A snail in the company’s logo reflects the company’s intended approach to brewing and service, which will involve manual brews from multiple roasters.

Yet for its first few days, the company’s enthusiastic fan base has kept long benches, communal tables, window-side nooks and the bar abuzz inside the Land Park neighborhood shop.

“I haven’t felt that mellow vibe quite yet,” Offbeat Coffee Co-Founder Vivian Tran told Daily Coffee News. “I’m hoping with the longer hours, it will soon get to that mellow vibe that we’re trying to go for, but we enjoy it, nonetheless. It’s a fun time.”

A low-profile 2-group Modbar espresso system hunches between baristas and customers over the natural wood-surfaced bar, allowing for direct discourse around the coffee, tea and matcha drinks as they’re prepared.

The installation is a step up from the single-group La Spaziale Vivaldi espresso machine Offbeat Coffee has relied upon as a pop-up operation. The brand’s first pop-up took place one year ago, following years of dreaming and planning by Tran and co-founder Thao Nguyen.

“We’ve had this idea since like 2015, so last year was the year that things finally started to happen for us and we started putting it into play,” Tran told DCN. “We have really big dreams, and it took kind of a long time, but finally we’re soft-opening the brick-and-mortar and we’re super happy about that.”

Tran’s love of specialty coffee dates back to high school, when she was already reading books on the subject. Her first high-quality barista jobs began while she and Nguyen lived together as students working and attending different schools in Los Angeles.

Soon Tran’s interest shifted towards roasting. She absorbed works by Scott Rao and other roasting experts, eventually landing a roasting job at The Three Fanged Feline.

“We’re actually carrying [Three Fanged] at our coffee shop right now, just because we want to get situated before we start roasting,” said Tran. “It’s the person that taught me how to roast, and that way we can kind of streamline what our coffee is probably going to taste like once we start roasting ourselves.”

Visible through a window inside the new cafe is a separate 500-square-foot room that will eventually house a production roasting operation.

In the meantime, The Three Fanged Feline coffees and beans from San Jose-based Academic Coffee Roasters will continue to lay the basis for drinks such as the already-popular Saigon Cinnamon, which combines the titular spice with a single-origin Ethiopian espresso and a smidge of condensed milk.

Customers can enjoy these drinks on contemporary rattan-back chairs and low stools situated near lean, minimalist shelving inspired by Tran’s visits to cafes throughout Asia.

“I just admire how homey and relaxed I felt in cafes over there, and so I think a lot of our inspiration definitely comes from Vietnam, Japan, even Korea, and that’s the style of our service as well,” said Tran. “We really want to put forth 110% customer service, take it slow, put out a good product, and just have people enjoy.”

Offbeat Coffee is located at 600 Broadway, Suite A, in Sacramento. Comments? Questions? News to share? Contact DCN’s editors here. For all the latest coffee industry news, subscribe to the DCN newsletter. 

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