Amy ScattergoodIf you've been wandering around Pasadena in an decaffeinated haze for the last few days, looking for Jones Coffee Roasters and finding instead an empty roaster-shaped hole where your coffeehouse used to be, don't panic: Jones has not closed, but simply moved down the street. Last Friday the business, which also grows, imports and roasts their own coffee, shut down and moved — taking Probat roaster, baristas, burlap sacks of green coffee and pastries from nearby Euro Pane — from the warehouse they've occupied since 2006, two blocks down Raymond Avenue to another warehouse, setting up shop off Edmonston alley while they finish construction.
Chuck Jones — Jones' mother Mireya Asturias Jones grew up on her grandfather's coffee farm in Guatemala; she and her sons started the Pasadena business in the mid-90s — said this morning that they hadn't renewed their lease and then had to move into the new location somewhat earlier than predicted. He expects the new coffeehouse to be fully operational in about a week and a half, and in the interim they're pulling shots of espresso in the back, with doors open to the back alley, and roasting at LAMILL's facility until their own roaster is up and running, probably by next Tuesday.
new Jones Coffee Roasters location; Credit: A. Scattergood
“How ghetto is that,” Jones said of the alley espresso operation, set up this morning with a few umbrella-ed tables and chairs in an empty parking space, a guard helping to direct traffic next to the wooden swing sets in the backyard of the adjacent Play-Well. Jones says that in the few days since they've been there, sales and tips have actually gone up, as people wander in off Fair Oaks and Raymond, displaced from their usual spot up the street; and that the neighborhood cops have been getting a kick out of the sudden upgrade in alley clientele.
The ad hoc shop, which now seems rather like San Francisco-style guerilla pop-up coffeeshop, will only last for a few more days, at which point the loading deck on Raymond will be become an outdoor café. Jones says that the industrial warehouse, which has been vacant for decades, will be effectively transformed in a few days into a fully operational coffeeshop and roaster (“nothing's changing”), complete with AC, which the previous location did not have, and improved parking.
Jones Coffee Roasters: 693 So. Raymond Ave., Pasadena; (626) 564-9291.
new Jones Coffee Roasters location; Credit: A. Scattergood
new Jones Coffee Roasters location; Credit: A. Scattergood
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