Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Lee Lizotte and Dana Lizotte of True Love Coffee Co. bring the love to San Juan Capistrano, CA.

Transcript

Lee Lizotte and Dana Lizotte of True Love Coffee Co. bring the love to San Juan Capistrano, CA. · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:02
  So I've been seeing a bunch of stuff on Instagram about coffee
• 0:05
  raves and I'm wondering why is no one inviting me to a coffee
• 0:11
  rave? Am I not cool?
• 0:13
  Am I too old? Anyway, cheers from True Love
• 0:18
  Coffee Company, San Juan Capistrano.
• 0:22
  Sliding into your screen is not just any coffee bag, it's a
• 0:26
  roast star coffee bag in thousands personalized, just 25
• 0:31
  in Rostar's Design lab. No design experience needed.
• 0:35
  Choose a pattern, add your logo and text, or create something
• 0:40
  memorable. With AI being made in the
• 0:43
  Midwest, you can expect it on your doorstep.
• 0:45
  No time. Now that was smooth.
• 1:41
  None. It's talking to my chest.
• 1:45
  It's talking to my chest. Cool.
• 1:52
  I never really know, you know, I try to like figure.
• 1:55
  Out two hour conversation and you're like 01 skip.
• 1:59
  I did an interview with some people and it was very clear
• 2:03
  that they were. I like the power dynamic
• 2:06
  there's. So.
• 2:07
  Much talk. So I'd say, hey everyone,
• 2:29
  welcome to Pocket Roasters. It's the first stop of the
• 2:32
  Coffee People podcast here with Lee and Dana for purveyors at
• 2:37
  this fine shop. I didn't think about the whole
• 2:41
  pocket fast thing. That's.
• 2:42
  Perfect. I think it's part of the show.
• 2:44
  What? Is that it's?
• 2:46
  The show presented by Rostar. So don't forget that the coffee
• 2:49
  packaging company where we talk to people.
• 2:53
  You guys opened how long ago? February, so yeah.
• 2:59
  Four months ago, so yeah. Barely, barely.
• 3:03
  OK, already kind of a vibe. I've been sitting here for a
• 3:06
  couple hours now, every hour. Maybe I'm just watching people
• 3:09
  kind of cycle in. Not crazy rush, but just a
• 3:12
  constant stream of people. How does it feel to be after a
• 3:18
  long process which if people listen to our first show
• 3:21
  together, they can learn? About right?
• 3:24
  How does it feel to just be here, sitting here watching
• 3:26
  people drinking? Wine, it's definitely amazing.
• 3:30
  It's really cool to see like people from week 1 come in and
• 3:33
  then seeing them every day since like now that we're a part of
• 3:37
  people's like morning rhythms is really cool and just like
• 3:41
  meeting new friends and just neighbors.
• 3:43
  I've just been so excited about having a new coffee shop in town
• 3:46
  and it's been rad. Like, and I don't really know
• 3:50
  what to expect either 'cause I was like, you know, barista for
• 3:55
  years and then roasted like in a warehouse alone for five years
• 4:00
  straight. And then going back in the Cafe
• 4:02
  culture, like how much has changed?
• 4:03
  Like signature drinks are like so huge now out or before.
• 4:06
  It's just like vanilla latte. It was like the craziest thing
• 4:11
  and now like having to be creative with seasonal drinks
• 4:15
  and then like Macho's huge now, which I've never made matcha
• 4:17
  before that too. It's like it's just funny going
• 4:20
  from, I don't know, production back into the cafe and just
• 4:24
  seeing how different it's, how much has changed in like 5
• 4:28
  years, you know, but. Dana, when we first met last
• 4:34
  year, you were kind of new to this.
• 4:36
  How do you feel you've adapted to the coffee culture coming
• 4:39
  from hospitality? Yeah, no, I was definitely very
• 4:42
  green to coffee. I couldn't steam milk terrified
• 4:48
  steamer and never worked in food beverage in the past.
• 4:52
  I think the thing that helped with hospitality is like just
• 4:57
  like speaking with the guests isn't any different connecting
• 5:00
  with people that walk into the bar.
• 5:03
  It's not no different than greeting someone at a hotel or,
• 5:07
  you know, anything I did in my past.
• 5:08
  So I think that was an easy transition.
• 5:11
  I think just, you know, learning to be a barista and like
• 5:14
  starting from the ground up was kind of challenging.
• 5:16
  But yeah, no, it's been it's been fun.
• 5:19
  It's been fun of kind of and. That's been like something rad
• 5:23
  he's brought to this. Is that like professionalism?
• 5:28
  Like he'll remember someone's name that came in once like 3
• 5:31
  like in the beginning, like he just so yeah, like he's and then
• 5:36
  most breezes are just like great at making drinks but like bad
• 5:40
  with humans. So like establishing that like
• 5:42
  culture here early on, like I'll be like know and care about
• 5:46
  people's day-to-day more than just making their drink because
• 5:49
  I'll like remember someone's drink order, but like not their
• 5:51
  name and like know details about their life.
• 5:54
  And then you'll like follow up with like a how's so and so
• 5:56
  doing? Like, I don't know, it's just
• 5:58
  like establishing that culture's huge.
• 6:01
  That's like definitely a shortfall of mine is like name
• 6:05
  recognition and you know, so as we're.
• 6:09
  Sitting here, half a dozen people would walk and walk past
• 6:13
  our camera, obviously to create divine I.
• 6:17
  You mentioned specialty drinks being a thing.
• 6:19
  You just put a post out about all these ROM com drinks.
• 6:23
  Oh yeah. Is that like a thing you're
• 6:25
  enjoying doing, or are you doing it because the people are?
• 6:28
  Demanding. Oh, I'm definitely enjoying it,
• 6:32
  but I definitely see like a trend and like kind of more
• 6:37
  mocktail Y iced refreshing drinks.
• 6:40
  I keep leaning into that like this last season we didn't do
• 6:44
  any flavoured lattes and like halfway through the OR the
• 6:48
  season I was like, oh, probably should have done the flavoured
• 6:50
  latte. It's like what people really
• 6:51
  want. But I also, I don't know, I just
• 6:57
  like playing with syrups and making homemade things.
• 7:00
  Like I definitely am enjoying it.
• 7:01
  It's just just exercising a new muscle, you know, just like, and
• 7:07
  still trying to find the balance of sweetness.
• 7:09
  I have to like really lean on people around me to like taste
• 7:13
  test syrups because I always under sweeten things and I'm
• 7:15
  just so used to like this. So like a latte.
• 7:19
  I'm like so much milk. Like I just like can't figure
• 7:22
  out how to balance the sweetness.
• 7:23
  That's why I definitely like lean on my wife and other, you
• 7:26
  know, customers and stuff like, hey, we'll try this.
• 7:29
  So it is super fun. It's just a a new experience.
• 7:35
  Yeah. What?
• 7:37
  What is the better the response? Obviously there's people here,
• 7:40
  but you're kind of in a straight mall.
• 7:42
  It's kind of a weird parking to get in and out.
• 7:44
  How are people finding you that San Juan responded to?
• 7:49
  True, a lot of people have been like word of mouth or like
• 7:52
  Instagram, like there's been some people that have done posts
• 7:55
  or Tik Toks and stuff. So a handful of people come in
• 7:57
  like, oh, I found some TikTok, which is cool.
• 8:02
  But then like we got a really cool sign painted by a friend,
• 8:04
  Kyle, and it's like visible from Trader Joe's, which is super
• 8:07
  nice that people walk out, they go and they're like, whoa, I
• 8:09
  didn't know the cop shop here. And it's always funny to me
• 8:12
  because it's like, I've been here for years trying to get
• 8:14
  this open. So I'm like, how did you not
• 8:16
  know? But I was like, oh, wait, we
• 8:17
  don't have like a sign out or anything.
• 8:18
  So it's funny that you like to stumble across it because, yeah,
• 8:21
  it is a very passable area. Like this was an abandoned
• 8:25
  building for years and then like mortgage offices and stuff.
• 8:27
  So it's like it's not like a high foot traffic area.
• 8:33
  So I was never too sure, like how I was going to do.
• 8:35
  Like, people can't really walk here, you know?
• 8:37
  But there is plenty of parking, which people have been really
• 8:40
  excited about in San Juan because parking's getting hard
• 8:43
  here. So that's been like nice life
• 8:45
  with locals. San Diego's talking about aid
• 8:49
  parking at the beach, and people are losing here.
• 8:53
  You know, again, one of the things you bring with your
• 8:55
  hospitality experience is kind of creating an environment.
• 9:00
  What's kind of the culture you wanted people to?
• 9:02
  What do you want people to feel when?
• 9:05
  You're hungry. I try to just be welcoming
• 9:06
  everyone that comes to the door. When I first got into coffee, I
• 9:11
  had this idea in my head that it might be a little stuffy in
• 9:15
  certain coffee shops just with past experience I've had.
• 9:20
  And I think my brother's big on this too, is just creating a
• 9:22
  warm, welcoming environment. And that's kind of like my
• 9:26
  background in the hospitality was creating that experience and
• 9:30
  I wanted to replicate that here. And yeah, connect with each
• 9:34
  individual that comes in and get to know them and make this a
• 9:38
  regular coffee shop for them. Yeah, name recognition is huge
• 9:42
  and you know, connecting on personal level the.
• 9:45
  Name True Love coffee company. I always want to say coffee
• 9:49
  roast. It's True love coffee company.
• 9:52
  Have you seen people fall in love at the shop?
• 9:57
  As a. Four month.
• 10:00
  Definitely a few states, yeah. And then and I've seen people
• 10:04
  come here before their wedding, so they're all in like their
• 10:06
  wedding get UPS. We definitely booked a lot of
• 10:11
  weddings with a coffee cart from this.
• 10:12
  Oh, you're still running the coffee cart?
• 10:15
  Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
• 10:19
  It definitely makes us like run a little slimmer here because
• 10:22
  it's hard to like staff them both.
• 10:24
  But it's just there's so few coffee carts where it's like
• 10:28
  plenty busy, great margins, so and just good experience and
• 10:32
  exposure too. So we'll probably cater forever.
• 10:35
  It's like it's just a good gig. But yeah, I'm excited to see if
• 10:42
  you know, more people do I'm. Drinking one of your batch
• 10:46
  crews? What am I drinking?
• 10:48
  Today, anaerobic Rwanda. That's your batch crew.
• 10:51
  Yeah, OK. Like your basic like, yeah, I
• 10:56
  mean it has like a ton of playgrounds like.
• 10:58
  This doesn't seem like. Yeah.
• 11:02
  Fancy bathrooms. Because it's with all the
• 11:05
  braces, just drink all day long. We all just get small cups.
• 11:08
  Just keep topping it off. So it's always put some fun on
• 11:11
  that, you know? Anything that we missed or you
• 11:14
  want people to know where true love is going over the next 4?
• 11:21
  Months a year, like now, it's a cafe.
• 11:22
  It's like is moving like we've got a great staff and we're
• 11:28
  really trying to push wholesale more so if you need any coffee
• 11:32
  we should. Actually, have you look at this
• 11:35
  camera and tell people who you are, because I never asked.
• 11:39
  You. Yeah.
• 11:43
  And then let them know how they can find you.
• 11:48
  My name is Leela Zot, and you can find us on Instagram at True
• 11:50
  Love Coffee Co and here in person at 32122 Community
• 11:55
  Capistrano. Let's do it.
• 12:19
  See our storage room's looking. All right, so we are outside
• 12:25
  true love. You were talking about a sign
• 12:27
  just a minute ago. I'll print painted for you.
• 12:30
  We want to show people that sign.
• 12:32
  There she is. And who's the artist that
• 12:36
  painted this? I know Kyle, I'm going to
• 12:39
  Butcher's last name, but let me get We're going.
• 12:42
  To look it up. Yeah, and with the tag, he's
• 12:46
  amazing. OK, perfect.
• 12:56
  Would you mind giving us a little tour of your shout?
• 12:59
  Let's do it. Bear in mind that I'm a rookie
• 13:01
  camera operator. I mean I'm a rookie interviewee
• 13:14
  for a secret closet storage storage.
• 13:22
  And then we got 2 RO systems, one for the batch brew at a
• 13:27
  slightly higher TDs and then this press 1 slightly lower TDs.
• 13:33
  How did you kind of come up with the aesthetic?
• 13:38
  Just like old American vintage dinery.
• 13:52
  Yeah. And then like say 1's known to
• 13:55
  be like pretty Western ish, so one like nod to that too.
• 13:58
  So you have like you know the pattern tile.
• 14:03
  And we're looking at the How did you end up deciding on the
• 14:07
  equipment? You have to be.
• 14:08
  I love all white aesthetic. The FB 80 is always my favorite
• 14:13
  machine. Like I love like the curves of
• 14:15
  it. It's just like a really classic
• 14:18
  looking machine and then spec design in Australia, like
• 14:24
  refurbished it and powder coated it and then like antiqued grass
• 14:29
  for all the hardware on there and then the the oak knobs and
• 14:34
  just really stoked on it. And then I love the UK.
• 14:41
  It's like my favorite grinder ever.
• 14:42
  We pull shots on it. That's what we do all of our
• 14:44
  single origin on and then batch brew and pour overs with it.
• 14:50
  And then we do the E65 for our decaf and the E 80 grand by
• 14:55
  weight for the blend. It just helps people be so
• 14:58
  consistent. Never have to weigh it, weigh in
• 15:01
  itself and then big puck press fan.
• 15:05
  Now everyone's tamping with the same amount of pressure because
• 15:10
  you train 30 lbs and then everyone's 30 lbs is way
• 15:13
  different. So it's just nice to have that
• 15:16
  level of consistency there. Comma, check out her closet.
• 15:20
  It's nice and tight. Some more caps.
• 15:26
  Behind the scenes True love coffee is that cold brew that
• 15:32
  you guys are doing. Yeah, it's still brewed hot and
• 15:35
  then rapidly chilled. And then, yeah, we did a single
• 15:41
  origin natural Ethiopia. It's like real bright light and
• 15:46
  crispy. It's definitely a fun one.
• 15:51
  Yeah. So they designed it all here and
• 15:53
  it's all cut in stone in Los Angeles.
• 15:55
  And then like the denim they get like Japanese denim, Italian
• 15:59
  leather, like the Super high end clothing, but it's like built
• 16:04
  just definitely the last or like timeless pieces.
• 16:08
  So I feel like it's like a similar, you know, goal, like
• 16:11
  start with really great materials.
• 16:14
  Like we start with really great coffee and do our best to
• 16:17
  highlight that. They start with really great
• 16:18
  denim and then, you know, make it all here, which is super rad.
• 16:24
  And like people have come in, grab a cup of coffee and then
• 16:26
  walk out with a $2000 jacket. I think it's pretty wild.
• 16:31
  But I don't know, it's just been cool to have like this store for
• 16:35
  people to like walk around and shop around and while they're
• 16:37
  waiting for their coffee, it's not just like standing there
• 16:39
  watching you make them drink the entire time, so.
• 16:42
  If you could kind of just, if I were to say, hey, what has been
• 16:46
  the most rewarding part of this experience, the first less than
• 16:50
  half a year that you've been over, what would you say?
• 16:54
  I think this establishing regulars, it's so cool.
• 16:57
  Like I knew and assumed like my friends would come out and be
• 17:02
  supporters, but like just random people in the neighborhood that
• 17:05
  just come in every day. So cool because it's like they
• 17:07
  don't need to like it, you know, like my friends kind of need to
• 17:09
  like it, you know, but just like, yeah, friends and family
• 17:14
  and has been great. But then yeah, just like how
• 17:17
  many like new friends I've made just being here and it's just
• 17:23
  really cool. It becomes like people's like
• 17:25
  spot or like their weekend spot. And that's been really, really
• 17:30
  rewarding. And then just my biggest
• 17:33
  downfall has always been social media.
• 17:35
  And it helps so much having this because people will just post
• 17:37
  something and I hit repost. Like it just like that's been
• 17:42
  super helpful too. But I don't know, it's just like
• 17:46
  it's really great going from roasting where like no news is
• 17:49
  good news to this where like you get to see someone's reaction
• 17:53
  like in real time, like whoa, like people are really enjoying
• 17:57
  the coffee, like, or they come back and buy retail bags.
• 17:59
  Like you get that like face to face interaction of like, I
• 18:03
  don't know, a positive experience.
• 18:04
  It's pretty amazing because before that I'm just mailing
• 18:07
  boxes out and if they order again, I'm like cool, I'm doing
• 18:10
  something right, but there's no like this is great, you know,
• 18:13
  like so that's been really cool and luckily we haven't had it.
• 18:20
  Too many people be mean. So stuck on that Let's.
• 18:25
  Say, as we're walking, maybe you can tell me what's the motto
• 18:28
  behind warm sweet time? What's the reason behind it?
• 18:32
  Yeah, I was originally wanting, you know, like it to be like
• 18:39
  trying to figure out like a quick little phrase that like
• 18:44
  you think when you think of our coffee, the sweet kind of worked
• 18:48
  in two ways with like just a lot of the coffees we source are
• 18:52
  like, you know, brighter, more fruit forward sweet coffees.
• 18:58
  But then the warm being like just like a cozy spot.
• 19:02
  Like, I think that's something a lot of, like the second wave
• 19:06
  shops did really well where the coffee is kind of horrible, but
• 19:11
  the vibe's always so nice. We just want to hang out in
• 19:12
  there and just like, I don't know, it's like a warm, inviting
• 19:17
  space. And then kind of just pretty
• 19:19
  self-explanatory. But there's a quick little motto
• 19:23
  that, yeah, I don't know, I just just came to make this.
• 20:05
  The.