2022 – 23 Holiday Hours
Sat 12/24: 8am-5pm
Sun 12/25: CLOSED
Mon 12/26: 9am-6pm
Sat 12/31: 8am-5pm
Sun 1/1: 9am-6pm
More room & more seating makes this covered spot a real destination!
Enjoy the light and breeze of the outdoors covered from the elements while sipping your coffee, tea or wine/beer!
Thanks to Brian Plaster & crew for making this dream a reality.
After many years for working directly with farmers in coffee growing countries, Carrboro Coffee Roaster President Scott Conary celebrated the first ever Origin of Denomination seal awarded to the coffee grown in Marcala, Honduras (think Napa branding for wine from that region) at the cultural fair put on for that honor. During this period, and in talks with an all-women coffee growing Co-Op (COMUCAP), he arranged with one of the organizers to have one of the young members come to the CCR Roastery in Carrboro and be trained in all things coffee/retail.
It was then, Over 12 years ago, that Nancy Hernandez left her country for the first time and was sponsored by Carrboro Coffee Roasters to learn her trade; beyond coffee growing. She wanted to learn all she could in the 10 days she was in USA about coffee roasting, espresso preparation and coffee brewing, and any other retail experience she could take home to Marcala in order to open her very own Cafe. Soft spoken but knowledgeable Nancy (who spoke no English) also shared her viewpoint with area residents and staff so they could put the pieces together for what really needs to happen in the farming/processing side of coffee, before it gets to us as green coffee to roast.
10 years later, she has 5 coffee shops and is actively selling an amazing high quality coffee from her farm, derived form years of hard work, to select roasters around the world. While we stayed in touch over the years and I have visited her in Honduras; 2016 marked the first time she could return to visit CCR again, the starting place of her retail coffee education! Even more amazing was to be visited along with her daughter Angelica, who at 12 was already starting to be an amazing coffee professional herself!
For CCR, this is but one example of the supportive work we have done over the past several decades, but a quintessential one, as it clearly shows our larger goals of creating a broad economic base for all of our Farmer Partners that allow for greater long term, and truly sustainable, relationships for them, their families and their communities. This isn’t just about buying a coffee once or even twice ( though we do value delicious, unique, high quality coffee…), but about safeguarding the future in all forms. For us this started as an investment with a young Nancy, and now extends to her daughter, their family and their community at large.
Now, in 2021, we have had the honor of a return trip by Nancy and her brother, along with Angelica her daughter. This time it is Angelica who will stay to work with us for 3 weeks to absorb all the details we can supply, so that best practices and a new level of skill & knowledge can be brought back to their town of Marcala, and shared with the people of Honduras.
Our tag line is ‘Coffee Unites the World’ and we strive every day to make that true. Sometimes the effect is immediate and observable, and sometimes, like coffee, it too is a seed that is planted for future hope.
Since 2015 we have been working with Nancy to offer her own farms’ coffee – Finca Jazmin. This coffee is amazingly balanced. The care that went into it’s growth and processing, that we tease out with careful and expert roasting, shows in its amazing tropical fruit sweetness and lovely floral and brown sugar qualities. While we have many more examples of our hard-earned Farmer Direct Relationship coffees available, this one has an amazing, full circle quality that really epitomizes all the years of effort, travel, and actual blood, sweat & tears invested in what we lovingly call ‘work’.
This is a special relationship that we strive to share with all of our partners, to have the unique qualities that are exhibited in this program put at the forefront of our company ideals and mission statement. We are willing to go to the lengths necessary to fulfill them & provide hope and a path for the future.
https://www.facebook.com/Open-Eye-Cafe-99520276597/videos/4322371821120848
We have been working closely with the OC Health Dept and staff to assure the safety of staff and customers.
We are cleared to re-open after having deep-cleaned the Cafe and tested all staff. All this, paired with our standard prevention/sanitization policies, ensure a safe environment
for everyone in our community to visit!
We will be working with adjusted hours as we build back up:
Mon 10/26 – Thur 10/29 8am – 2pm
Fri 10/30 7am – 6pm
Sat 10/31 – Sun 11/1 8am – 6pm
We would like to thank our community for being so supportive as we worked through this situation in a way that was safest for all.
We also appreciate the OC Health Dept for guiding this process, and all of our wonderful neighbor businesses for being there for us!