Entrepreneurial stories don’t always look like a scruffy dude working out of a garage until he disrupts a major industry, or someone who fails at a dozen ventures before landing on the right idea. I mean, they do a lot, but not always. Sometimes, the story goes: There’s a guy who, with the help of his friends, opens a business to share a passion found later in life with his community.
That’s what Five Corners Coffee & Bakery is—or will be, when it opens at 3407 First Avenue next to the Royal Food Mart and Mia Trattoria in Bankers Hill in late June.
Originally from San Diego, founder David Ferriot didn’t get into the coffee scene until he headed to Seattle for college. “Starbucks was all the rage in the late ’90s, early 2000s when I was in school up there,” he says. But it wasn’t until a study abroad trip to Italy that his love for the beverage was truly sealed. “Now I get it—this is what coffee is supposed to taste like.”
During a stint living in Los Angeles, he became a regular at Kings Road Coffee, the small-batch roaster Lawrence Casperson opened in 1990 after a long career in fine-dining restaurants from Wisconsin to San Francisco. “He’s had the same coffee supplier for 35 years,” Ferriot says. (It’s Royal Coffee in Oakland, if you’re curious.) His signature blend comes from five countries in Indonesia, Central, and South America.
After graduate school, some more travels, and a long career in marketing and advertising, Ferriot found himself at a crossroads. Was now the time to open his own coffee shop in his hometown? He emailed Casperson to ask for his advice, setting off a chain reaction that, several years later, culminated in Ferriot launching Five Corners, which is now Kings Road’s first (and only) wholesale coffee account.
He’s not the only colleague or friend Ferriot tapped during this process. A friend from Ferriot’s Little League days connected him with Josh DeSoto from Next Wave Commercial to help find the right space—something big enough for an in-house bakery, but not a roastery, since Kings Road will be providing the beans. Sarah Salcedo, director of bakery operations and founder of Tu Madres Bakery, is also a friend, and his first call when he needed to hire a pastry chef.
Five Corners Coffee & Bakery will offer traditional espresso drinks—lattes, cappuccinos, and the like—but don’t expect traditional drip coffee from a carafe. Instead, every cup is made to order via a 60-second extraction process “to make this really full-bodied, frothy, just delicious cup of coffee,” he explains. (It’s a little trick he picked up from his mentor, Casperson.) It’ll also offer matcha, loose leaf teas, smoothies, protein shakes, and some seasonal and specialty lattes with ingredients like ube or manuka honey.
Salcedo’s pastry program will feature a variety of sweet and savory empanadas, various muffins and laminated pastries, and small-format desserts inspired by her experience crafting elaborate buttercream cakes at Tu Madres. And while there are a few coffee shops and cafes on the other side of Maple Canyon (James Coffee, Mnemonic, and Communal) or closer to Balboa Park (Cafe Bassam, Quiet Storm Roasters), the general abundance of offices, homes, and around 2,700 new residential units planned to be built over the next year and a half make the location somewhat undercaffeinated, compared to nearby neighborhoods like South Park or downtown San Diego.
“A big part of what we want to do is help educate people on coffee,” Ferriot says. Some people are going to want to just come in to enjoy their cup, while others will want to know about the country of origin, the farmer, the roast, every detail, “kind of like Portlandia,” he laughs. Either way, he’s eager to oblige.
Five Corners Coffee & Bakery opens this June at 3407 First Avenue in Bankers Hill. Initial operating hours will be seven days a week from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. (subject to change).
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- The beer industry overall may be struggling, but there are still breweries giving back to their communities. Locally, California Wild Ales recently announced an initiative where a new charitable partner rotates every month, starting May 1 in support of the Rady Children’s Health Extra Life Tabletop Program. On May 30 at the brewery’s Sherman Street Barrel House (3826 Sherman St.), the first of two Super Smash Bros. tournaments will kick off at 2 p.m. to raise funds for the program. You don’t have to compete to attend, so come ready to game, raise a pint, and raise some money for Rady.
- One of the rip-roaringest (literally) events of the year is coming up on May 2—the San Diego Zoo’s all-inclusive Food, Wine & Brew fest. It’s fun enough being at the zoo after hours, but when there’s also beer, wine, and food included, I’m sold. (Oh, and it raises money for wildlife conservation as well. So I’m really not seeing a downside here.)
- For something a little more white tablecloth and a little less white rhino, L’Auberge Del Mar’s L’Auberge Uncorked brings back a whole slew of winemakers from Napa Valley, Italy, Paso Robles, and more for the second year of the event, which runs from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, May 3. To wash down what’s sure to be quite a few splashes of world-class wines, there will be plenty of raw oysters, steak bites, and even lobster corn dogs on hand. Need to stay the night? There’s even an Uncork & Unwind package for the weekend. You had me at corn dog…
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