Cafe Highlight: Visit The Andytown Roastery

We try our best to provide our guests with a consistent, delicious experience at every Andytown cafe location. That said, we don’t like our cafes to be carbon copies of each other. We love to make each cafe it’s own unique experience, designing them to highlight the existing architectural features of the buildings they are in, and carrying items that suit the neighborhoods we serve.

This year, I’m going to highlight a different Andytown cafe each month, interviewing the General Manager of that location about what makes their cafe so special and why they love their location.

Today, I’m sharing a chat I had with Xavier Hernandez (below, left), the General Manager of our Roastery Cafe. I hope you enjoy reading our conversation, and please come visit them and say hello!

Name: Xavier
Cafe Location: AndytownRoastery, 3016 Taraval Street
Years in Coffee: 5 years
Years Managing Your Andytown Location: 1.5 years

What makes your Andytown location so special? What sets it apart from the other Andytown cafes?
The roastery is special because not only can you order your favorite drink, have a chat with neighbors or your barista, but you are also able to see, hear, and smell our coffee being roasted right behind us! How cool is that!

Is there anything that you sell at your cafe that you can’t get anywhere else?
We have an array of greeting cards, prints, and local artisan crafts! We also have free burlap bags leftover from the roastery that anyone can take home for projects.

Tell me about your team! What makes your team so awesome?
My team is great! Even though we one of the smaller teams at Andytown, we are the mightiest!! No, but seriously, the team is great we all support each other and most importantly we have fun crafting drinks for everyone that comes in! 

What is the craziest thing that’s ever happened at your cafe? (Something funny, shocking, or unexpected)
Something unexpected that happened was a person came in took a green apple book from the shelf and just threw them in the middle of the street! LOL so random!

Do you have any fun traditions at your cafe?
Every year, we host a field trip from Playmates Preschool around the corner. The kids design their own coffee bags and learn about coffee. Then we send them back with hot cocoas!

Andytown owner, Michael, demonstrating the strength of burlap coffee bags for the students of Playmates Preschool.

Tell me about a time when a customer made your day special. What happened and how did you react?
Customers always make our day, but Amy, usually our first customer of the day,  often brings us egg sandwiches that she makes with the bread from the bakery next door! She is the best <3

Tell me about a time when you (or someone on your team) made a customer’s day special. What did you do and how did the customer react?
I recall onetime a regular came in and it was during their finals. They were looking a bit tired and stressed, which led me to ask about how they were doing, and their response was “I am getting by…” I offered to comp their drip coffee and they denied but I insisted, and their face lit up with a bit of relief and joy! They expressed how thankful they are!  It is always the small things! <3

Lastly: why do you love working in coffee? How do you express this in your day-to-day in your cafe and with your team?
I love working in coffee because of people! Coffee is a people person job, I often enjoy chatting and getting to know regulars, helping folks who are just stepping into coffee and giving some insight on our coffees and brewing equipment! So if you ever want to visit us here we are always chatting it up at the roastery getting to know everyone that walks through our door.