Java City’s rebirth or an idea past its prime?
Posted by TheShot on 31 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: Café Society, Local Brew, Quality Issues
In 1985, Java City started as a café on 18th & Capitol in Sacramento (back then my wife was a regular) that quickly grew to a number of retail outlets across northern California. However, over the past few years, Java City reconsidered their growth strategy as Starbucks grew everywhere like weeds: Java City closed numerous retail cafés in S.F. and focused instead on their wholesale operations.
Today Java City’s focus has apparently gone back to the art and craftsmanship of espresso — what they like to call their “purist” roots of the 1980’s. To celebrate next month, they plan to finish a complete remodel of their original location, featuring “coffee tastings and hand-made lattes from professional baristas”: News10.net - Free Coffee Celebrates Java City’s “Rebirth”.
With so many independent and “boutique” cafés now leading the quality charge for espresso, it’s hard to say whether a focus on quality over Starbucks’ quantity will be a viable growth strategy for what today is “yet another coffee chain”.
1 Comment »
on 02 Apr 2007 at 10:33 am -04:00T 1.Hedonia said …
I lived in Sacramento 1990-91, and Java City was all the rage then. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, I found that downtown Sacto had a pretty vibrant independent cafe scene, certainly moreso than one would expect from a city of its size. I’ve not been back in years, but wonder how many of those quaint little coffeehouses got consumed by Java City or worse.