black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge

Ukiah, California, isnโ€™t known for much.

Itโ€™s a small community, almost 18,000 residents, just a stop-over town in the heart of Ukiah Valley, and considered by many to be the urban heart (such as it is) of rural Mendocino County, 2 hours north up the coast from San Francisco. Youโ€™ve probably only ever visited as a place to fill-up on gas on your way to Oregon.

Maybe you know it because of its vineyards, row after row in every direction, which supply some of the regionโ€™s biggest wine producers with grapes. Or maybe you know this region for its hundreds of weed farmsโ€”small to large to enormousโ€”tucked away out of sight in the rolling hills surrounding the town, helping to supply marijuana enthusiasts in California and beyond. What you donโ€™t know it for, as of now, is coffee. Up until recently if you were up north, you might stop in Healdsburg for a cup of Flying Goat Coffee, or if youโ€™re smart, pack a thermos of whatever you drink at home, and pray that it lasts you the three to five hour haul to the border of Oregon. With the opening of Keith Feigin and Jon Frechโ€™s Black Oak Coffee Roasters in Ukiah though, there is now a coffee destination, for both travelers and locals alike.

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge

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Black Oak Coffee is on Ukiahโ€™s Main Street, a rectangular building that has the sort of blocky architectural stylings of a 1960s mechanic shop. Prior to Feigin and his business partner Frech buying it in 2014, it had been a string of coffee shops, the best known among them was called The Coffee Critic. Feigin was born and bred in Ukiah, the product of a family that had lived in the area for generations and had owned businesses there for almost half a century. โ€œI grew up going to this coffee shop as a kid,โ€ Feigin recalls, โ€œwe came here every day and weโ€™d sit out on the patio and smoke clove cigarettes and not buy anything.โ€ Feigin and his wife, Kate, own Loverโ€™s Lane Farmโ€”named after his familyโ€™s ranch where they, their kids, and his parents liveโ€”a successful honey company, but after years of debilitating drought, Feigin was looking for a backup. โ€œBeing an agricultural producer is really volatile,โ€ Feigin says, โ€œduring dry spells, it can just be months and months of no income.โ€

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Jon Frech

Jon Frech is an East Coast transplant whoโ€™d migrated west in his 20s to try farming in the fertile valleys of Northern California. He and Feigin bonded over ranchingโ€”specifically goatsโ€”and a friendship quickly grew, with Frech helping out with business aspects of Loverโ€™s Lane. Feigin had been researching the profitability of owning a coffee business, and when he decided to make the first step, Frech came aboard as his partner. Problem was, neither knew anything about roasting coffee. Enter Steve Ford.

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Keith Feigin

If youโ€™re keen on the coffee industry, Steve Ford might be a name you know. He spent years as Ritual Coffee Roasterโ€™s roaster before recently taking over as Head Roaster at Counter Culture Coffeeโ€™s massive roasting expansion in the Bay Area. He also grew up in Ukiah and has been one of Keith Feiginโ€™s best friends for most of his life. โ€œSteve really saw the value of what we had here,โ€ Feigin says, โ€œand him and Jon and myself started meeting over the campfire and talking about coffee and our business model.โ€ The day before Thanksgiving 2011, Frech and Feigin purchased the former Coffee Critic space. With Ritual Coffee helping to train their employees and get the coffee tech side of things ordered and calibratedโ€”โ€œmother-henningโ€ them as Frech puts itโ€”Black Oak opened its doors in December of 2012.

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Roasting coffee.
black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Coffee roaster belt.

It wasnโ€™t easy at first. The Ukiah community wasnโ€™t ready for the nuanced flavor profiles of the micro-lots Frech and Feigin were selling when they opened the door. โ€œWe had no blends when we opened,โ€ Frech says, โ€œand people were complaining that the coffee tasted like acid and that it was bitter.โ€ Frech and Feigin know that the success of their coffee shop is entirely dependent on pleasing the Ukiah community, so, without sacrificing their own ideals, theyโ€™re creating a menu that plays towards the wants of their customersโ€”a primarily working class town. โ€œItโ€™s a smaller market,โ€ Feigin says, โ€œall of our customers are either locals or regulars, so we have to be more customer-friendly. Light roasted coffees from individually named co-ops are our passion, but youโ€™re going to see a large range of roast levels and a large range of drink options here.โ€

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Coffee in jars.

Black Oakโ€™s Black Bart blendโ€”a dark roast named after a notorious highwayman who terrorized the area in the 19th centuryโ€”was introduced six months after the store opened and quickly became its most popular coffee. And, to be frank, itโ€™s good: a big, chocolate-y roast with just enough nuance to elevate it to a higher level. Same goes for the specialty drinks on the menu, in particular the Loverโ€™s Lane Latte, a latte infused with a shot of Loverโ€™s Lane Honey and then garnished with a crust of bee pollen. It could be just another shockingly sweet drink, but the earthy pollen dust and the espresso offset the herbal sweetness of the honey. โ€œTo be honest,โ€ Frech says, โ€œI donโ€™t think people need coffee education. If someone tastes something they like, theyโ€™ll want it. Thatโ€™s our job, make it delicious and then the journey begins.โ€

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Lover’s Lane Latte with bee pollen.

Frech and Feigin want Black Oak to be a coffee shop as good as any in the Bay Area, but one that doesnโ€™t sacrifice the small town, communal aspects of Ukiah in the process. You can feel the combination of hip Bay Area cafe and community coffee hangout as soon as you walk in. It has refurbished hardwood, stylishly vintage furniture, and a gleaming La Marzocco GB5ย espresso machine, but itโ€™s also huge and decked out with comfortable-looking couches and big tables that beckon you to meet a friend or plug-in your laptop and stay for awhile. โ€œI want it to be a place where you can go and say, โ€˜Iโ€™m going to stick around here for a while, drink my coffee, and look out the window,โ€™โ€ Feigin says, โ€œWhen I was growing up, I wanted that community coffee shop. Itโ€™s about discovery, and bringing these coffees to Ukiah, and if I can facilitate that, it is very satisfying.โ€

black oak coffee roasters ukiah california cafe lovers lane farm honey sprudge
Barista Steve Cuevas

Frech and Feigin wouldnโ€™t object to more stores, but their focus, for the moment, is on Ukiah. That means building not only a stellar coffee program but also creating a place where people want to be. And who knows? Maybe a little further down the line, folks in Ukiah can expand the way they interact with coffee. In the meantime, Feigin and Frech will take the small victories and keep moving forward. When customers walked into Black Oak, there used to be a sign that read, โ€œWhy isnโ€™t my coffee hot?โ€ with an explanation of the proper way to serve a milk-based drink. Two years later, that sign has disappearedโ€”it’s no longer necessary.

Black Oak Coffee Roasters is located atย 476 North State Street, Ukiah, California. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook,ย Twitter, and Instagram.

Noah Sandersย (@sandersnoah) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in San Francisco, and a contributor to SF Weekly, Side One Track One, andย The Bold Italic. Read moreย Noah Sanders on Sprudge.

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