Buying a cup of coffee in this town seems simple enough. For one, there are stores selling coffee at almost every corner.
Gig Harbor already boasts six Starbucks locations — three inside grocery stores, one drive-thru location and two free-standing cafés — plus a seventh store soon to open on Harborview Drive.
There are a handful of independent, locally owned coffee shops, like Kimball Espresso Gallery and Java & Clay Café, plus two franchises — Cutters Point and Forza Coffee Company — headquartered in Gig Harbor.
And last month, the city added one more.
Jake’s Brew Co., a startup coffee roaster, joined the Gig Harbor Peninsula Area Chamber of Commerce in January.
The small company — owned by the husband-and-wife team of Joe and Bejae Sanchez — joins Cutters Point as the only coffee-makers in Gig Harbor who actually roast their own beans.
“It’s been fun to do it ourselves,” Joe said. “But to do it for a living is a whole new ballgame.”
Fun is the operative word for Joe, 52, and Bejae, 48. The couple, who moved to Gig Harbor in 2006, started Jake’s Brew as a part-time hobby.
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