Sometimes the Inland Empire just can’t catch a break.
A bright spot in the Southern California desert’s emerging coffee scene—a way first paved by now well-known names like Klatch Coffee and Augies—hit a setback last month when Riverside, California boutique biz Arcade Coffee Roasters was forced to scale back its improbably charming setup.
After all, it’s not often you get to consume a cup of artisan-roasted, thoughtfully prepared coffee from the back of a roll-up gate in a Riverside office park adjacent to lawnmower repair businesses. But that was part of what made Arcade such a nice surprise. Alas, this September, the City of Riverside put the kibosh on the informal back-door community gathering space created by partners Stevie Hasemeyer and Shane Levario—at least in that particular location, at this particular time.
Arcade’s open-air pop-up in Riverside is no more.
“I knew [the shutdown] would happen sooner or later, but I felt like we just couldn’t afford the consequences of not having a place to connect with people anymore,” said Hasemeyer about the city’s closure. This was once a thriving, odd-opening-hours, pay-what-you-wish neighborhood pop-up, which failed to meet certain Riverside permitting standards like separating the roasting area from the cafe’s door with an air curtain. “We will keep roasting here under our current permit and go from there,” he assured Sprudge.
