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”.
2 Comments »
on 02 Apr 2007 at 10:33 am +00:00T 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.
on 09 Mar 2012 at 2:40 pm +00:00T 2.b0b said …
Ah, I remember being able to hang out at the original Java City on 18th & Capital. Had a couple friends that lived close by. It was during the BBS days, where someone could say “coffee in ten” in teleconference and 10-15 minutes later, sure enough, the place was packed. (A lot of you internet newbies won’t ever understand that reference, unfortunately..)
Glad the original location is still open. I also used to have fond memories of the Lohemann’s plaza one too.