Love at first sight – for café wonks like us – comes when we step foot inside a simpatico spot. Swooning, we start studying the elements that make it successful. Such was our recent experience alighting on Scout Coffee Co. in San Luis Obispo, CA.
Verdant and vivacious, Scout sings with pops of color and care, from the lime green stitch-work spelling “coffee” to the lush living wall behind the barista bar. Husband-and-wife duo Jon and Sara Peterson have left no detail un-dialed: the blue mason jars filled with fresh milkshakes (in yum flavors like salted caramel); the granola parfait perched on checkered Fog Linen trays; the tree stumps scattered about as squat stools. Jon roasts the coffee himself under the hand-scripted logo, HoneyCo, and the snappy brews are poured into diner-style mugs.
Everything feels careful and thoughtful. Or, as our go-to coffee news source Sprudge said: “That is the word, crafted. Not the ill-fitting knit sweater variety or even the exacting foodie description, but crafted in its relationship to skill and skillfulness. Scout Coffee Co. is crafted, shaped to fit its slogan: ‘Happy Coffee.’”
Sludge writer Kristen Orser-Crouse continues: In a town like SLO (and Jackson) – a place already loyal to long-standing cafes – Scout positions itself as “a complement to its community.”
“It’s challenging, as a small business moving to a small town, to embody your own distinct brand and do something new. Scout has to have a dialogical relationship with the community and it does this through design, service, and product.”
The communion created by Scout is palpable, even for tourists like us. Everyone seems cheery in this setting, lingering in the sunshine and the good vibes of good design.
Scout makes homey happiness feel chic: “Scout is reinscribing the contemporary mom-n-pop shop: The owner’s touch, the sense of someone putting thought into everything, is there. But this place is anything but amateur. With skill and beauty, Scout Coffee Co. is asking third-wave coffee to be a little more homespun, more careful about the details, and happier.”
Hear, hear to Scout and their smiling success; hopefully, we’ve achieved a smidgen of the same in Jackson Hole.