Melissa Villanueva, who was working a corporate job she found unfulfilling, went looking on Craigslist for an espresso machine and found an entire coffee shop for sale instead. She and her husband Angelo had little money, no detailed business plan and no prior experience, and they opened the first Brewpoint in this space in September 2014. It has since grown into a woman-owned, AAPI-owned company with several cafes, its own wholesale roastery, an event space and a book, Starting and Running a Coffee Shop, and it has been written up by Forbes, Entrepreneur and Fast Company. The mission is creative drinks and cafes that strengthen the community, and the menu shows the creative part.
The house espresso is the Acrobat, a medium roast blend, and the roastery turns out single origins and seasonal blends like the fall Arborist, with notes of plum, rhubarb and saffron. Seasonal drink menus rotate through the year; right now that means pumpkin spice, a taffy apple chai, a maple butter matcha and the return of banana bread. This location keeps it simple, coffee and pastries, open from 6:30am on weekdays and 7am on weekends, with mobile ordering through the Brewpoint app.
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