A Cup of Coffee With Some Local Flavor

Q: What made you fall in love with coffee?

A: The Romance poets, Wordsworth and Longfellow. In high school the writers struck a chord with me, and I was drinking instant coffee just to stay awake to study them. One weekend I went to Balboa Island and saw my first coffee shop, just a tiny place selling the beans, and bought a quarter pound. When I went home and made a cup, I remember thinking, “Where has this been all my life?” From then on I was a coffee fanatic, and I became the coffee person at Polly’s Pies, where I worked for 15 years.

Q: How did Polly’s Gourmet Coffee get started?

A: In 1988 I purchased the business from Polly’s Pies. It has been an independent business since then, and at its heart is a 1929 German coffee-roasting machine. We routinely roast 10,000 pounds of coffee a month, which we do ourselves because coffee will lose about 25% of its flavor within 13 days after roasting. The sooner you get the coffee after the roasting, the fresher it’s going to be. We also have an espresso bar and a bakery.

Q: What was the inspiration behind Polly’s Friday movie nights?

A: I came to work one day and some potted plants from down the street had been thrown onto our patio. I came into the store steaming mad, and the staff asked why. I said I felt like the captain in the movie Mr. Robert, a 1955 film starring Henry Fonda, about a treasure ship in the backwaters of WWII in the Pacific. But no body got the reference. We’ve gone on to show movies like Casablanca and Vertigo, all the classic films that people younger than my generation have no idea happened, as well as more contemporary ones they can run lines with.

Q: What do you do to foster such a familiar atmosphere?

A: I tell my staff we’re not selling coffee, we’re selling the image of coffee. The product we’re selling is how you feel when you walk in the building. And that’s what the independent operator can provide against the chain store, because we try to personalize the experience for each individual customer. We can change our marketing philosophy very quickly to adjust to what a customer wants, whereas a chain store is one size fits all.

It’s also important to be part of the community. We donate to local charities; I’m a guest lecturer at Cal State Long Beach. I’m also the Vice President in charge of promotion for the Belmont Shore Business Association, on the committee that does such events as the annual car show and Southern California’s largest Christmas parade.

Q: Has Polly’s experienced a change in clientele over the years?

A: My clientele ranges from teenagers to senior citizens. Everyone’s coming here to make a statement about his or her lifestyle. This store adds to their positive feeling about themselves and how they’re living their life. When you come in here and talk to a local, you’re part of the community, part of the group. If you come in here and your working on your computer, you have a quiet place to work on that fantastic novel. If you're here for the beans, you’re getting the best coffee in the world, and when you go home and show that to your family and friends, you can be proud of that. Some people say they come in just to hear all the jokes that people tell. And others say they come in spite of all the jokes people tell. It’s an interesting mix of people, and it’s fun to introduce them to each other. There are so many talented people that come here, and when they connect with each other that's always a good thing.

Q: Any last words?

A: To you, it’s a cup of coffee. To me, it’s a mortgage payment.