Every Thursday, Petaluma Patch will feature a business column focusing on what's up with local businesses: who's opening, who's closing and who's hiring. Have a tip for us? Send us a note.
Acre is the newest gourmet coffee shop on Petaluma’s 4th Street, right across the street from the Petaluma Historical Museum.
This hip new spot features simple wooden tables, each with a lamp, and minimalist art and is owned by Steve De Cosse, a partner in Acre Gourmet catering and Acre coffee shop in San Francisco's Presidio. But the Petaluma coffee bar is a separate venture he formed with his wife, Sharon Fitzgerald.
Acre opened September 1, but word about the business has quickly spread, already garnering good reviews on Yelp and Facebook.
While giving credit to Starbucks and Peets for bringing coffee from its days in the freeze-dried can, Acre is moving towards a more handcrafted, culinary experience, De Cosse said.
“The coffee is lightly roasted so the complexity of the coffee comes out, like it would in a fine wine,” he said.
The emphasis is on quality and the constant adjustment of the coffee grind is also part of the handcrafted process. “Every 20-30 minutes, we adjust the grind and the tamp.”
In addition, each barista gets six months of training prior to pulling your espresso shots or making you a cup of cappuccino. Acre serves up Flying Goat Coffee – direct trade, single-origin beans sourced from small coffee growing regions all over the world, including Panama, Costa Rica and Ethiopia.
But while the coffee is a large part of the handcrafted experience, enthusiastic comments from coffee drinkers on Yelp also noted the café’s interior design add to that feel. Ninety percent of the materials used in the furnishings are reused and the tables handmilled by the owner.
“It’s an open and airy room with a machine-age aesthetic,” De Cosse said. “It’s a handcrafted environment and that reflects our values.”
Nuf said. The direct trade organic roasted coffee, fresh baked goods (gluten-free granola, cookies & breads), and the ever-important wi-fi, are already luring Petalumans in.
Acre coffee is located at 21 4th Street, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (707) 772-5117.
Labcon Flips the Switch to Solar
Labcon, a Petaluma-based manufacturer, will hold a ceremonial “flip of the switch” next week on their new 800 kilowatt solar array that went operational in July.
The solar array is planned to contribute 30 percent of Labcon’s energy needs. Upgrading the company’s roof to support over 2,500 solar panels was one of the first steps in the project. Solar panels cover about one half of the rooftop on the 125,000 square foot building. The project took seven months and $3.3 million to complete.
Labcon North America is a manufacturer of laboratory disposable products. Founded in Marin in 1959, the company relocated to the Petaluma facility in 2003 and has approximately 260 employees. Labcon North America is a wholly owned subsidiary company of the privately-held Helena Laboratories of Beaumont, Texas.
Find out what's happening in Petalumafor free with the latest updates from Patch.
CamelBak Aquired for $257.5 Million
Compass Diversifed Holdings Inc., purchased the privately-held Petaluma company, CamelBak Products LLC for $257.5 million as announced on Reuters. Compass will have a 90 percent stake in the company with the rest held by CamelBak’s management one of Compass’s shareholders.
CamelBak makes personal hydration equipment used in sports and hiking. The company reports that nearly a third of their sales are now from the military. To read the North Bay Business Journal’s article about the sale, click here.
Have a news tip for us? Send it to Tracey Ruiz or Petaluma Patch editor Karina Ioffee at karina@patch.com
