Seven Years of Andytown
Our Kickstarter video from 2013
Seven years. It seems like an eternity and yet it has gone by in a flash. Andytown’s journey started when I met Michael while we were working as baristas in 2008. Over the years, we would always talk about what our cafe would look like, all the while working as baristas around San Francisco. We always knew we wanted to have our own cafe, but it felt more like a pipe dream than an actual goal. Then in 2012, we signed the lease at what would become our Lawton location. The rent was cheap, the landlord didn’t ask too many questions, and it was only a couple of blocks from our apartment. We took the leap and never looked back.
We never thought Andytown would be successful. When we signed our lease in 2012, we had the landlord add a clause that we could terminate the lease at 3 years, because we thought 5 years was an outrageously long amount of time. Sure enough, by the end of our second year, we were renegotiating for a 10-year lease with 5 year options. Our vision had become a reality, and we knew we wanted to stay for a long time.
Four locations, two kids, and one pandemic later, Michael and I are still here. It’s an incredible feat in such a challenging business landscape, and we are grateful for every second of time we’ve spent working with our incredible team, and serving our neighborhood.
I’ve combed through the archives of Andytown’s photos to find some of my favorite moments from the past seven years. No one knows what the next seven years will bring.