Oakland-based coffee company Red Bay Coffee Roasters is expanding to Los Angeles with a 11,000-square-foot Jefferson Park cafe and public roastery.
The planned Red Bay Coffee is on target to debut in spring 2020, at 3001 W Jefferson Blvd, in an art deco building erected in the 1930s and formerly an artist compound and food emporium, according to a press release.
Red Bay Coffee acquired the space in April 2019 and will open what will be the fifth outpost for the company joining four existing locations in the Bay area.
The Red Bay Coffee Public Roastery will also serve as an art gallery, a venue to host private events, latte art classes, weddings, new product launches, and aligns with the company’s “commitment to build community and bring Beautiful Coffee to the People.”
Red Bay Coffee Founder Keba Konte is working on opening at least two other locations.
“We just won a contract for the Oakland International Airport and we’re establishing new coffee shops in Richmond,” Konte earlier this year told AFROTECH.
Konte launched the company in 2014 as a roaster and cafe serving pastries and specialty drinks.
Red Bay Coffee’s mission is “to ensure coffee production is not only high quality and sustainable, but a vehicle for diversity, inclusion, social and economic restoration, entrepreneurship, and environmental sustainability,” according to the company’s website.
“We are foodies, artists, activists, community folk, and innovators who love, love, love what we do.”
The company focuses its hiring efforts on “those who have traditionally been left out of the specialty coffee industry, especially people of color, the formerly incarcerated, women and people with disabilities.”
“Opening in Los Angeles has been a goal of ours for some time,” Konte said in the release.
“LA is a mecca of creativity, culture, and expression. This location is the perfect opportunity and space to bring our vision to life and contribute to that history. As a mission-driven company community is important to us so we’re looking forward to building that in LA.”
Sooo what happened to this? It has not yet opened.