Sneaking in just before the wire at the end of this season’s Build-Outs, we’re excited to bring you this story on Two Cities Coffee Roasters in Clovis, California.
Yes, Clovis! It’s a humble little Central Valley town located near Fresno, home to around 100,000 people with plenty of history and a charming Old Town. Two Cities is located in a building that dates from 1910, with built-in hutch and fireplace features you won’t find in most coffee shops. There’s also rolled ice cream, which, yum, and a deep beverage program that includes single origin coffees, loose leaf teas, and much more.
We’ll admit that Clovis wasn’t on our must-visit list before, but now? We want to experience the Clovis way of life, starting first and foremost with Two Cities Coffee Roasters.
As told to Sprudge by Rick Reeves.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
Established in 2013, Two Cities Coffee Roasters is a family-owned coffee roasting company in Clovis, California! We are committed to roasting high quality coffee that gives back to global and local causes, while connecting with our community and out-of-town visitors. We currently have a 2,000-square-foot roastery as a wholesale and roasting center, retail by order and appointment, and the first coffee bar/tea bar/rolled ice creamery combination in our Central Valley area, primarily for events.
In our love for going out into our community, we have always emphasized the mobile coffee and tea aspect of our company for coffee and tea bars at local farmers markets, community events, and more. Unique to our company in our area, we also roast at many of our events on our mobile and stationary roaster that we designed and built ourselves.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
We are very excited about expanding into a new coffee bar, tea bar, and rolled ice creamery space that will be open six days a week. Located in Old Town Clovis, this location, nicknamed Two Cities Coffee Roasters Rolled Ice Creamery, will feature our fresh roasted coffee beans espresso-based drinks including signature lattes, manual brew methods, signature iced coffees, nitro options, loose-leaf teas, rolled ice cream, and more.
We are ecstatic to further introduce rolled ice cream to the Clovis/Fresno/Central Valley area and feel that it is an innovate compliment to our coffees in that it is handcrafted and frozen to order. As such, many of our rolled ice creams are inspired by our signature lattes, showcasing and featuring our fresh roasted espresso. Rolled ice cream is very visual in that our organic liquid ice cream base and mix-ins (such as fresh local fruit) are poured onto a frozen metal disc, chopped together to mix, scraped into a thin layer to freeze, rolled, and capped with toppings. We have been pioneering this concept of specialty coffee and rolled ice cream in our area and are excited for this expansion.
Our Old Town Clovis location is in a historic area of the city of Clovis, and as such we are seeking to highlight historic aspects of our building. Built circa 1910, it is a brick building on the front exterior with a unique small built-in patio entrance. There is a quaint walkway to our large, iron-fenced back patio where our guests can enjoy the outdoors under a large oak tree. The interior of the shop will be urban industrial with deep tones and light accents with wood, steel, and lots of plant life. A built-in hutch and fireplace will accent window seating, a nook with comfortable chairs, and other exciting features!
What’s your approach to coffee?
As coffee roasters and baristas, we seek to craft high quality coffee brewed in innovative methods. All of our coffees are fresh roasted, 100% Arabica, organic, specialty grade, and are all fair trade, relationship sourced, or Rainforest Alliance. All of our coffee beans are small batch roasted on our roaster we designed and built to bring out the unique flavor notes in each bean. Every region, cooperative, and farm has unique aspects in the coffees they produce that we seek to highlight.
One aspect of Two Cities that we hold dear is that in addition to giving back to local and global causes, we give a portion of the proceeds from all of the coffee beans purchased from us (wholesale and retail) to a local Clovis organization called Medical Ministries International (MMI) that sends medical supplies, equipment, and clinics to places in need globally. We believe in enjoying excellent products while helping to fill people’s needs and making them feel loved and cared for.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
Our equipment includes a customized three-group Synesso MVP Hydra espresso machine, Mahlkönig PEAK espresso grinders, and a Mahlkönig EK43 shop grinder. We also will have a variety of manual brew equipment. We will be featuring our own roasted coffees in single origin and signature blends, as well as our fantastic decaf. We have also introduced wine barrel aged coffee and wine barrel aged cold brew coffee to our area, which will also be featured in this location.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
September 2017/October 2017
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
We definitely love to listen to feedback and suggestions of our local community to know what they would like to see in the space and what menu items they would love to be made available. So we have had the community involved in that way. We have also made wonderful connections with local business owners and contractors that have shared awesome ideas and feedback and have been of incredible help in this build-out. Of course, we have many wonderful surprises when this location opens, incorporating our vision with what our community has suggested. So we would like to express our appreciation for our community’s excitement! As we say, “We Love Our Two Cities” and are excited to share this experience with them and anyone who ventures to the Fresno/Clovis area to stop in and give us a visit!
Thank you!
Thank you so much for letting us share our excitement with you and the coffee community! Exciting times are ahead!
Two Cities Coffee Roasters is located at 608 4th Street, Unit C, Clovis, CA. Check out their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
The Build-Outs Of Summer is an annual series on Sprudge. Live the thrill of the build all summer long in our Build-Outs feature hub.
Photos courtesy of Chelsea Reeves
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