Acre to open second Petaluma coffee shop

The popular cafe will expand with a new location on Petaluma Boulevard North.|

It was the historic character of downtown Petaluma that inspired Steve De Cosse to open his first Acre Coffee shop in the cozy space at 21 4th St. The café was created with 100 percent reclaimed lumber and now features artwork from local artists.

Following the success of this community hot spot, De Cosse and partners Javier Canales and Britt Galler have decided to open a second location in Petaluma in a former warehouse at 1080 Petaluma Blvd. North. The spot was home to Petaluma Cyclery for almost 30 years. The vision the partners have will bring Acre Coffee values together with features reminiscent of the building’s former uses.

“We wanted to create a venue that brought together bicyclists and coffee,” Galler said. “The roastery is where we are going to roast coffee. We roast all of our own beans, and that is what we sell and serve. And we have a friend that builds these really cool bicycles, called Extra Cycles, and we thought this would be a neat way to showcase his bikes. We really support bicyclists and there are a lot of bicyclists in this area.”

Acre Coffee has three other locations, each embodying an attribute of the Acre brand. The Santa Rosa location offers grilled breakfast and baguette sandwiches, as well as an extensive menu of loose leaf teas. In San Francisco, Acre Coffee caters to a lunch-driven crowd, providing workers healthy grab-and-go salads and sandwiches. Petaluma, the first location of the Acre Coffee franchise, had a rich and historic character that attracted the three investors.

So far, Acre Coffee seems to have lived up to it’s mission of providing high-quality coffee to customers, receiving rave remarks on review sites such as Yelp and Foursquare.

“It’s cool to have the same customers all the time,” said barista Alexis Arango. “They know what you want and you know what they want and it’s just cool seeing them everyday with a smile on their face.”

Acre holds a high standard for their baristas. Arango recalls the extensive training program required for all employees.

“It’s a pretty cool job, you learn a lot of tools about coffee, a lot of information about different coffees, and how it’s done the right way,” Arango said. “It’s very different than a typical Starbucks. This is more of a specialty coffee shop, so you go more in-depth on what you’re doing for the customer.”

At Acre, care for the beans begins long before the coffee even hits the shelves, Galler said.

“Steven - he’s the roaster - he decides which beans to use, and he gets them,” Galler said. “He has relationships with the people that we get the beans from.”

Having two Acre Coffee shops in such close proximity could be a challenge to the business, but Galler is confident that Petaluma can support the two locations. Both will have separate but equal success, she said.

“A lot of our regular customers here have told us that they live near the new roastery and that they’ll enjoy going there,” she said. “Our hope is that it continues to create a more community-oriented feel along the boulevard. Hopefully we can be a part of that.”

The company began roasting at the location in May of this year, and plans on opening to the public in September.

(Contact Ella Ban at argus@arguscourier.com.)

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