San Carlos Gets Its Grind On

By Graham Godwin

There’s a new coffee spot joining the San Carlos ranks!

Grind Coffee, formally of Redwood City, has recently moved inside the Station Café located directly behind the San Carlos train station. 

“So far the business have been really good, a lot of our loyal customers have made the transition to our new location,” said longtime employee Marika Brown. 

Coffee Grind was previously located on El Camino Real in Redwood City, but when the building was leased, owner Scott Sapienza was forced to relocate his “brew to order” coffee fix to San Carlos.  Brew to order coffee is a relatively new trend in the coffee business offering the customer the option to personalize their brewed cup.

The original Grind Coffee had been open for three years, opening on Valentines Day, 2009. Sapienza had owned the Movie Groove and sensed an opportunity to expand. He teamed up with Simon Vivian and they added a compliment to the Movie Groove with a drip coffee bar.  

Over the past three years, the Movie Groove and Grind Coffee Bar built up a reputation for offering customers great coffee and an array of movie choices. 

Before the addition, Movie Groove had been a fixture in Redwood City for 26 years. It offered an extensive collection of movies that reached upwards of 31,000 different choices. 

The new Grind Coffee has been open for about a week and prides itself on the quality of coffee they put forth. About a dozen coffees beans are available at anytime and each cup is brewed precisely to order. Only the best beans are used to ensure Grind’s reputation as a fresh high end pour over coffee.

Being situated in the same building as Station Café has added a new dimension to Grind, “Customers have been happy that our coffee has been coupled to the Italian food Station Café has to offer,” mentioned another longtime employee Vittorio Vaiarello.

Many of Grind’s loyal customers have transitioned to its new location. 

“The coffee is still really tasty, the same people work here and they still play really good music, its still got the same vibe as in Redwood City,” said loyal customer and San Carlos resident Matt Ahrens.