Coffee Culture:

And the story of how bike meets bean

by Jeff mIller

Want a challenge? Try getting Kim Anderson and Aaron Olson to stop moving long enough for an interview. Good luck. They’re a blur of motion ever since opening their new Handlebar coffeehouse location on De La Vina in September.

It’s their second Santa Barbara shop. They opened the first in 2011, in the former Three Pickles Deli space on East Canon Perdido. That was the real challenge – establishing a new shop in a new city in an enterprise that was also new to them.

Previously, Olson and Anderson had been on the road for years as professional cyclists, mostly in Europe. Along the way, in 2009, Anderson won the women’s version of the Tour de France, called the Route de France Féminine.

“We both raced for best team in world for a while,” Olson recalled. And when they weren’t racing, they were often in cafes, drinking in the atmosphere and the brews that they would eventually work to replicate in Santa Barbara.

“That’s what you do in Europe,” Anderson said. “You stop at a café for a sandwich and then you keep riding. It’s part of the cycling culture. I loved that everybody knew each other.”

They actually met in Japan, though, as two of the five-rider U.S. national team. “From that point on we were kinda joined at the hip, traveling together,” Anderson said. That was 17 years ago.

They may be cycling citizens of the world, but they began as Westerners, she from Colorado Springs, he from Eugene, Oregon. So it’s fitting that they ended up here. During the Amgen Tour of California they discovered Santa Barbara and the seed of an idea was planted. On the upside, they found “a nice-sized city” with a welcoming feel. Olson said. They liked the world-class climbs on Figueroa and Gibraltar mountains. And they needed an airport nearby. The downside: Expensive. But the climate kept bringing them back.

The decisive year was 2008. Olson’s team was yet another victim of the economic crunch. Though Anderson still had her contract, the duo start- ed talking in earnest about making their coffeehouse fantasy a reality.

They made the leap in 2011, opening the first Handlebar Coffee Roasters across the street from Santa Barbara’s birthplace, El Presidio. Then, five frenzied years later, the building on De La Vina became available and the idea of a second shop took root.

It was a much bigger project than the first Handlebar, sizewise and everywise. (The downtown shop is 1,200 square feet, the uptown: 4,000.)

The De La Vina structure, built in 1939 as a Safeway supermarket, needed a lot of work, not to mention permits. Over the years it had been a mattress store and a woodworking shop, among other uses. They peeled back the walls to reveal the original bricks, Olson himself chipping off the plaster. They pulled down the drop ceiling to create 30 airy feet of headroom, unveiling skylights as a bonus. The permits took 11 months to come through.

And that was only the starting line. This shop would expand on the original concept by adding more food, including house-made pastries, plus serving beer and wine. There were baristas to hire and train, a kitchen crew to find, a menu to create, on and on. Plus they’d now be steering two Handlebars.

What they didn’t have to learn was how to find fine coffee beans and how to roast them. They’ve been doing all that since 2011. Their original roaster, dubbed “Hercules,” has now been replaced by “Zeus,” a completely rebuilt Probat oven from Germany. “They make nicelooking, practical workhorses,” Olson said.

And there’s plenty of work. Olson roasts about 1,000 pounds of beans twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays). “Huge days,” he labeled them. All of that is done in the new De La Vina shop. They shuttle bags of the product downtown “pretty much every day.”

Most of the beans come from Royal Coffee in Oakland, but about one-fifth come straight from Colombia. In 2015 Anderson and Olson journeyed there and met Rafael Aya at his La Virginia farm. “They gave us lunch,” Olson recalled. “It’s a personal relationship, and it’s really rewarding,” he said. And the beans? “Top quality.”

Now the two shops are running smoothly, but that doesn’t mean it’s all a downhill cruise. “I didn’t realize it would be this busy,” Anderson said. “The community has really come out from every nook and cranny.”

“It’s been amazing,” Olson agreed. “In the morning there’s a line at the door. On weekends it stretches to the parking lot.”

From nothing, there was suddenly a swarm of regulars filling the air with coffeehouse chatter. “I think every community is looking for a place to meet,” Olson said. Kind of like a European café.

Getting it all done requires hard work and long days – often 17 hours at least. Is it all fueled by gallons of caffeine? Not so much. When they do finally get a cup of coffee, it usually goes cold from lack of attention. “We don’t sit down long enough,” Olson said. The kitchen tries to force-feed them. “They’re afraid we’re getting too skinny.”

Those long days run into nights. Handlebar uptown hosts live music (free!) in the evenings, including local favorites Bryan Titus and Lois Mahalia in recent weeks. Is the music drawing a crowd? “Packed,” said Olson. (He was spotted busing tables at almost 8 p.m. during a recent standing-room-only Titus show. Asked what time he’d arrived that morning, he said, “4:30.”)

The two Handlebars employ about 40. The owners declined to name names because “so many have helped us over six years.”

As for their freewheeling past, Olson said, “I think we both miss traveling, being fit, the challenge of waking up and riding.” But there’s plenty of satisfactory challenge in waking up and running a business, he agreed. “We’re paying back the gods of the coffee world, creating a nice environment for people around the world to come and enjoy.”

Handlebar Coffee Roasters www.handlebarcoffee.com

Louie’s is a hidden gem

offering creative and up-to-date Californian cuisine with spot-on service. Its bistro-like space is located inside the 130-year-old Hotel Upham, and reflects the charm and tradition of its Victorian location, with a jazzy, comfortable feel all its own. The romantic atmosphere can be experienced dining cozily inside or outside on an old-fashioned heated verandah. Choice selections from the well-stocked wine bar are served with extraordinary fresh seafood, pastas, filet mignon and a changing menu of specialties.

Food 26

Decor 21

Service 25

Cost $47