After Nearly 45 Years in Business, Oakland Coffee Roaster to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Cafe - Eater SF

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Downtown Oakland’s newest high rise will also play host to its newest coffee shop. Mr. Espresso, an Oakland business since 1978, will open its first brick-and-mortar cafe on the first floor of the new 1100 Broadway building this May. The company has been distributing Italian-style oak wood roasted coffee to Bay Area retailers, cafes, and restaurants, such as BAIA and Ariscault Bakery in San Francisco, for nearly 45 years, and is now ready to join the cafe market, too. “The cafe itself will have a nod to Italy, as far as the service format,” Luigi Di Ruocco, who is going to manage the Mr. Espresso cafe, says. “It will be a high end cafe experience, and a bit different.”

The shop, called the Caffe, will open in the new 18-story office tower, the Key at 12th. The development incorporates the historic Key Systems Building, a national landmark, into the design. The Key Systems Building dates back to 1911 and became the headquarters for the Key System Railway, which transported East Bay residents locally and across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, in 1943. The plan is to make the 1,200-square-foot space feel like an Italian coffee bar with little room to sit but plenty of room to stand and drink espresso.

Carlo Di Ruocco, originally from Salerno, Italy, founded Mr. Espresso in 1978, but these days he’s more behind the scenes while his children, Luigi and John Di Ruocco, and daughter, Laurence “Laura” Zambrano, tackle the challenge of opening the new shop. Luigi Di Ruocco, who also opened the Coffee Bar with two locations in San Francisco’s FiDi, says the shop was designed and ready to go before the pandemic even hit. “We had this opportunity at the beginning of 2020,” Luigi says. “Pre-COVID it was a textbook can’t-lose location. We jumped in, and, while we have a strong reputation, we are looking to get our coffee in front of consumers directly.”

Once upon a time in the 1980s, Mr. Espresso had a showroom in Alameda, a place to check out espresso machines and grab a bag of beans. The wholesale business took off, so around 1990 the Di Ruoccos closed the shop. Now the family is ready to try their hand with a new generation and in a new space. “We want it to feel like it does in Italy,” Di Ruocco says. “It’ll be a place for a quick chat, a conversation, in the heart of downtown.”

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Aromas owners to offer breakfast at new business: Red Roof Cafe & Breakfast coming soon - Ripon Commonwealth Press

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A Wholesale Baker Will Open a Retail Store and Cafe This Spring in West Town - Eater Chicago

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This spring, the bakers at Publican Quality Bread, which produces baked goods for all its One Off Hospitality siblings (including the Publican and Avec) and 75 other shops and restaurants around the city, will be trying something entirely new: they will be serving people face to face.

“I’m just looking forward to seeing people enjoy food again,” says chief baker Greg Wade. Wade has been with the PQB since the very beginning eight years ago, when he was making loaves in the basement of Publican Quality Meats, and it has been a very long time since he had to deal directly with a customer.

While the new PQB, which is 4,200 square feet, will be mostly dedicated to baking (it produces 16,000 pounds of dough every week), there will be a small cafe with two dozen chairs, where customers can eat sandwiches and pastry and drink La Colombe coffee and grab loaves to take home.

The bread itself will not change: it will still require a long fermentation period, and it will still be made from the same flour PQB has always used, a special blend of Warthog, Turkey Red, and Red Fife wheat known as WTF, grown at Spence Farms and stone ground at Janie’s Mill, both in central Illinois.

“Stone milled flour is important because you get all the nutrients in the bread,” says Wade. The wheat berry has three components: bran, germ, and endosperm. Conventional mills sift out the bran and germ — and most of the minerals and fiber — for a lighter and more shelf-stable product. With stone milling, the three components are crushed and emulsified together to produce flour, and eventually bread, that has more nutrients and, Wade says, more flavor.

The new Publican Quality Bread bakery is already up and running, but the cafe won’t open for a few more weeks.

Publican Quality Bread

The counter service operation, though, will serve specialty breads made in smaller batches that will allow the staff of 11 bakers room to experiment. Wade promises more decorative bread work, with fanciful shapes and stenciling. There will also be pastry, and lots of it. PQB has quietly been making croissants and danishes for its wholesale customers for a few years, but now there will be a regular menu of breakfast pastries during the week and decadent creations on the weekend, like caneles and croissants stuffed with hazelnut frangipane and sliced pears or topped with bruleed Swiss meringue and candied lemon peel.

But Wade may be most excited by the sandwiches. Every weekday morning, the bakery will produce trays of Roman pizza crust, which the bakers will cut open and stuff with various combinations of meat (from Publican Quality Meats, naturally), cheese, and preserves. As with Roman pizza, customers will be able to indicate how much sandwich they’d like and they’ll be charged by the pound. There will also be tartines on thick-crust marbled rye toast — perhaps topped with confit garlic, shallots, and pureed mushrooms — and grab-and-go options on croissants, plus salads made with grains and seasonal vegetables.

“I come from a savory background,” says Wade, who won a James Beard award for Outstanding Baker in 2019. “I really fell into bread after doing savory work. This is how I cook almost every night at home.”

The cafe will open sometime this spring, though not in March. “I hate March,” Wade says. “It’s a teaser month.” The bakery, however, is already up and running. There are cooling racks set up in front of the big windows on the western side of the building so that passersby can see and smell the bread. Frequently, Wade says, they ask if there’s anything for sale. As a goodwill gesture, he and his staff have been giving out bread for free and taking down their visitors’ names and email addresses so they can invite them to an opening party.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Wade says. “When you’re wholesale, it’s hard to implement new things because chefs just want to order the same thing they’ve been ordering for the last eight years. And now we have the reward of seeing people excited about what we’re doing.”

Publican Quality Bread, 1759 W. Grand Avenue, Scheduled to open spring 2022.

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Sweet Pea's Creperie Café Delivers More Than Amazing Crepe Options - Good Times

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By Andrew Steingrube

Posted on March 8, 2022

Before Michael McBride landed in Santa Cruz, he went to Florida International University to learn classical French cooking. Following graduation, the Maryland native loaded up his Toyota Celica with a kayak and his dog and headed to the West Coast; “California has it all,” McBride thought. He would be able to ski snow-capped mountains and surf killer waves on the same day. But the perpetually creative food scene and excellent wine was the main attraction.

McBride recalls his fall-in-love moment with Santa Cruz while catering a Fourth of July party at Rio Beach in Aptos. Its natural beauty smote him—he and his wife Dorte ended up buying a house two blocks from that very beach.
The East Coaster scored a job running Sweet Pea’s Creperie Café in Los Gatos, which led to opening Sweet Pea’s in Capitola. 14 years later, the Creperie is still going strong, thanks to tasty homemade crepe creations of the sweet (strawberry, banana, Nutella) and savory (chicken pesto) variety. They also serve a hearty breakfast burrito that “travels well,” deep-dish quiche twice the thickness of an average size quiche, sandwiches, salads and an alternating lineup of housemade soups.
Recently, McBride rapped with GT about making incredible crepes and what it’s like to be in business with the love of his life.

Tell me about your passion for crepes.

MICHAEL MCBRIDE: It comes from when I was a young child hearing my grandparents talk about the crepes in Brittany, France, which was where my grandpa grew up. This place is well-known for their crepes historically, especially their savory buckwheat variety, which we also offer at Sweet Pea’s. I realized the universal appeal of crepes with my old catering business. From tech parties to professional athlete functions to music festivals, the clientele, age range and type of people were all really diverse. But everyone seemed to really love my crepes, so we decided there needed to be a spot here in town to offer them.

What’s it like running a restaurant with your wife?

It’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. I could not have started Sweet Pea’s without her, and we certainly wouldn’t be here today. She left a very amazing job in electronic brokerage to be my business partner. We run the business together, and every day is a dream and an adventure. We have to be prepared for anything owning a restaurant, but that is what keeps it interesting.
2121 41st Ave., Ste. 107, Capitola, 831-476-2737; sweetpeascrepes.com.

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New Dickson ‘Just Love Cafe’ coffee shop opening at former popular restaurant site - Tennessean

Cafe Lola Is Bringing a Frose Window and Afternoon Tea to the Strip - Eater Vegas

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Cafe Lola, the Vegas-based, decked-out cafe known for its ultra-feminine decor, high tea service, and photographable interiors is opening on the Strip. The location is planned for the end of summer 2022, and will be inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

According to co-owners Alexandra Lourdes and Lin Jerome, the space will be designed in a similar vein to the other two locations, with lots of pink, florals, and velvet, but they’ll also be bringing in new elements including a walk-up window where guests can get frose to go, patio seating, and a secret photo room. The new location will have the cafe’s popular mother-daughter tea program and will be family-friendly with costumes and an expansive kids’ menu.

Bar & Restaurant Expo Announced Award Nominees

The Bar & Restaurant Expo announced the finalists for its 2022 Industry Excellence Awards ahead of the convention in Vegas from March 21 to 23. Vegas Chef Nicole Brisson of Brezza and Bar Zazu (both inside Resorts World) was nominated for Chef of the Year, and Carversteak (notably also inside Resorts World) was nominated for Restaurant of the Year. Dawg House Saloon (also inside Resorts World) is nominated for Sports Bar of the Year. The winners will be announced at the expo on March 23rd.

Famous Food Street Eats Adds Four Stalls

The hawker-style food hall inside Resorts World has added four new stalls. Fuhu Cha Chaan Teng is a Hong Kong-style tea cafe serving dim sum, congee, soups, and more. Famous Pho will offer a couple of style of pho while Burger Barn offers burgers topped with Asian-influenced toppings and Harajuku ramen offers, yes, ramen.

Third Bobby’s Burger Location is Now Open

Bobby Flay’s third Strip outpost of his burger concept is now open inside Paris Las Vegas, just next to the upcoming Nobu. It will have the brand’s classic burger, fries, and shakes, as well as a breakfast menu served from 7 a.m.

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Hello Kitty Cafe Truck returns to Virginia Beach - 13newsnow.com WVEC

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