Coffee Cycle Roasting Expands To San Diego's Ocean Beach, Opens Second Storefront

September 9, 2024

Coffee Cycle, a popular mobile coffee business turned Pacific Beach staple, has opened its second brick-and-mortar location in San Diego's Ocean Beach. 

Founded by Chris O’Brien, a San Diego coffee industry veteran, Coffee Cycle started as a unique coffee cart mounted on a tricycle, which O’Brien pedaled around the city for years. With a passion for coffee and a commitment to sustainable transportation, O’Brien combined his interests to create a mobile coffee experience that evolved into a permanent café. 

Since 2017, Coffee Cycle has operated out of a small café on Grand Avenue in Pacific Beach, where it built a loyal following. The original shop features a menu of single-origin drip coffee, flash-chilled iced coffee, and creative specialty drinks like lavender lattes and honey freddos - an espresso shot shaken with local honey. However, with the recent opening of the Ocean Beach location on Voltaire Street, Coffee Cycle is expanding its offerings and in-house production capabilities.

The new Ocean Beach location comes equipped with a five-kilo roaster, allowing O’Brien to roast Coffee Cycle’s beans on-site for the first time. This gives the café greater control over the quality and freshness of its coffee. In addition to their signature drip coffee and specialty drinks, Coffee Cycle also serves unique mocktails such as a virgin mojito and a passionfruit and butterfly pea tea refresher. The café makes all its syrups in-house and even produces its own cashew-macadamia nut milk.

Currently, the café offers empanadas from local favorite Empanada Kitchen, with plans to introduce house-made sandwiches in the near future. The space also includes a backyard patio, providing a relaxed atmosphere for customers to enjoy their coffee. Looking beyond just a coffee shop, O’Brien envisions the new location as a community hub where they will host coffee education classes and events featuring meet-and-greets with coffee farmers who work directly with Coffee Cycle.

O’Brien’s background in coffee includes seven years as a barista at Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, where he learned from one of the industry’s top professionals, Bird Rock founder Chuck Patton. The new Ocean Beach location will feature a small roaster dedicated to Patton’s latest venture, Chuck’s Roast. Patton, who sold a majority stake in Bird Rock Coffee Roasters in 2017, is now returning to the coffee scene with a focus on rare and small-lot coffees. Through Chuck’s Roast, Patton will offer online sales and on-site tastings, as well as education opportunities through his consulting business, Patton Coffee Consulting. He plans to advise new coffee entrepreneurs and offer classes on starting a coffee business.

Coffee Cycle Roasting is now open at 4856 Voltaire Street in San Diego's Ocean Beach. For more information, visit coffeecycleroasting.com.