Brewing a Sense of Community

As I write this, it’s 3 p.m. on a May-gray Thursday afternoon — the deadest time of the week at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, by my reckoning — and it still feels like a sociable place to be taking a break.  Mornings — weekdays, weekends — this place hums with a communal buzz.  Coming up on its third anniversary as a retail operation, BRCR particularly blossomed after owner Chuck Patton expanded into the storefront adjoining the original space at 5627 La Jolla Boulevard.  Since then it’s become a de facto community center — one of those happy shared spaces where you not only chat with your neighbors but walk away feeling that you like them.

That’s an achievement on this stretch of road. Years ago the commercial strip running through Bird Rock enjoyed an incarnation as a restaurant row, but most of the stellar operations (Cindy Black’s, L’Escargot, Issimo) left long ago. Things became downright bleak during the years when the gigantic Seahaus condo project and then the Bird Rock street-beautification efforts were inching along on what seemed to be an excruciatingly slow construction schedule — spewing dust, obstructing traffic, and keeping everyone from getting to the shops struggling to stay in business.

The dust finally settled and the last of the plants were in the ground by last summer, and drivers on the boulevard now seem to have gotten the hang of negotiating the string of roundabouts that were installed to slow traffic down. But that alone doesn’t explain BRCR’s success — not with a new, stylish Starbucks almost directly across the street.  It’d be nice if I could honestly say the secret was the coffee, which is about as politically correct imaginable — organic, shade grown, fair traded, bird-friendly. Sheesh! I think the coffee’s excellent. But Starbucks brews good joe too.

Here’s what I think makes this place work: 1) The architecture. When those glass garage doors are open, the interior space merges with the public space, and at least in that little patch of San Diego, the outside world seems kinder and more civil. 2) Lots of inviting places to sit, including the sidewalk tables and the wide varnished window seats built into the facade. 3) Barristas who may just be the friendliest in South La Jolla/PB, 4) That community room decorated with watercolors painted by the kids at Bird Rock Elementary and stocked with magazines.

It’s all little stuff, but it adds up.  And sure there are other coffee houses all over San Diego County that have conjured up a similar mix of magical elements, but every time one does, it’s cause for some celebration.