Lulu's At The Octagon

Our Octagon location opened in April 2007. The Octagon was built in 1882 to serve as the Hall of Records of Santa Cruz County, which it did till 1968 (how they crammed the records for the entire county into that 900 square feet, we'll never understand), after which it became variously, a condemned building, a museum and a gift shop. We like it as a cafe. We built it to experiment with new technology (we installed a Clover and a La Marzocco Mistral here, when they were still unknowns on the Stateside coffee scene)  and as a proving ground for that technology, as well as for our top flight baristas. Today, we use a wide spectrum of brewing techniques and Yama Ice Drip towers, and continue to experiment with new technologies. And now, a couple of times a week, Emily rolls the Blue Label cart outside and fires up the trial roasters on the sidewalk. Seriously, how cool is that? It's a delightful space and, with all the crazy stuff we do in there, just a little quirky, as all great cafes are.