Bird Rock Coffee Roasters along La Jolla Boulevard has become a source of pride in the community as Bird Rock\u2019s poster child for a local, successful business. It has also become a social hub for neighbors. Owner Chuck Patton has carved a niche in the market across the street from Starbucks Coffee. Patton describes the success of his business as an “organic” process that evolved step-by-step into its popularity today. “I didn\u2019t get the idea to be in the business and then build a caf\u00e9 the next day,” Patton said. Patton, who lives a few blocks from the store, taught English at Grossmont College and City College and knew nothing about the coffee business. He began roasting coffee as a hobby at home. Eight years ago, he turned his hobby into a business when he began roasting coffee commercially out of the VFW kitchen on Turquoise Street to sell at the La Jolla farmer\u2019s market. Patton eventually purchased his first retail space \u2014 a kiosk behind Albertson\u2019s on Turquoise Street \u2014 to sell cups of coffee. “At each step, I was better defining the brand and learning more about the cost of the operation,” Patton said. “I got excited about the possibilities. I realized that no one is doing this here. No one is doing a good enough job exposing people to good varietals.” Patton is now trailblazing his own business model for sourcing exceptional coffee by establishing direct relationships with individual farmers and rewarding them for the quality of their bean. For the past two years, Patton has traveled to places like Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Columbia, Sumatra and Ecuador to build partnerships with individual farmers based on the quality of their beans. He tastes the coffee before he purchases anything. Originally, Patton opted to work within the Fair Trade system \u2014 which ensures farmers are paid at least a set minimum price per pound \u2014 but he is now more interested in working directly with individual farmers to help them grow better beans. “The problem with Fair Trade is that the farmer [in the cooperative] is not rewarded for quality,” Patton said. Plus, a portion of the Fair Trade cost goes to the $1,000 annual certification. Patton said he\u2019d rather invest that money directly into the farm. Patton is experimenting with rewarding farmers with more pay according to the score their coffee receives in the shop. Patton said he pays as much as $4 per pound of coffee when commercial importers typically pay $1.50 for a lower grade of coffee. “It\u2019s easier to call a broker,” Patton said. “That\u2019s why I\u2019m one of the only ones doing direct trade. It\u2019s more expensive \u2026 It requires an investment of travel. Direct trade with individual farmers accounts for 30 percent of the coffee sold at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, but Patton aims to push it to 75 percent by next year. San Diego doesn\u2019t have the coffee culture like San Francisco or Seattle where people spend rainy days socializing in coffee shops and have grown to appreciate good coffee. Patton said he has the burden of making coffee connoisseurs out of San Diegans. So far, the locals are buying into it. “People seem more educated about wine than coffee,” Patton said. “Coffee is just something they drink to get a buzz before going to work. They don\u2019t think about it as having complexity and a flavor profile that\u2019s different between countries. “When I taste coffee, I look for something that\u2019s unique and interesting, the same as you would for wine,” Patton said. “Does it have body, acidity and finish? Is it clean and sweet with a pleasant acidity? In coffee from Sumatra, I look for a bigger body than in coffee from Costa Rica. In Ethiopian coffee, I look for blueberry notes. I understand the possibilities.” At home in La Jolla, Patton has also made his shop a pillar of the local community; it doesn\u2019t hurt to build favor with local customers. The store supports fundraisers at Bird Rock Elementary School. Patton donated space in the store for the Bird Rock Museum. He\u2019s promoted local artists and is working with the non-profit ArtReach to bring art to classrooms. Patton didn\u2019t intentionally design the coffee shop to help neighbors socialize, but it\u2019s morphed into an open, relaxed space for strangers to easily chat in passing. Garage doors roll open and a bench straddles the inside and outside of the store, creating a seamless transition between the tables inside and the benches on the sidewalk. The sea breeze wafts in and sunshine is visible to customers hunched over their computers. “I was trying to bring the ocean in \u2026 I\u2019m probably the coffee roaster closest to the ocean in the country,” Patton said. Tostadores de caf\u00e9 Bird Rock<\/b> offers coffee tastings \u2014 called “cupping” \u2014 for people to learn about the art and science of coffee every Friday at 10:30 a.m. at the store, 5627 La Jolla Blvd. For more information call (858) 551-1707.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bird Rock Coffee Roasters along La Jolla Boulevard has become a source of pride in the community as Bird Rock\u2019s poster child for a local, successful business. It has also become a social hub for neighbors. Owner Chuck Patton has carved a niche in the market across the street from Starbucks Coffee. Patton describes the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Fine roast: Turning locals into coffee connoisseurs","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}