Captain + Stoker

A roastery window, not a room

Seaside is a walk-up window at the company's main roasting facility, so the whole transaction happens outside: order at the hatch, wait beside the coffee and the pastries, and take the picnic bench if it is free. There is no dining room to settle into, which makes this the most stripped-back site in the group and the one closest to the roaster.

The coffee is roasted daily on the other side of the wall. The programme is specialty single origins rather than a fixed house blend, and the espresso is roasted lighter than the Italian default even though the drinks list reads Italian. One named pour-over lot, Banko Gutiti from Kochere in Ethiopia, gives an idea of the register: floral, bright and built for filter.

Monterey roots and an Australian accent

The business started in Monterey in 2018 around a tandem bicycle idea, the captain steering and the stoker powering, which is how the founders describe both their partnership and the cafe's role as a gathering place. The first shop leaned into it with large windows, a roll-up garage door, a long wood counter and tandem bicycles hung from the ceiling.

Seaside strips that back to the window, but the drinks stay the same. Early coverage described Italian coffee culture with an Australian influence, and the flat white is the clearest evidence, poured as a small, dense latte rather than a cappuccino with less foam. Espresso runs through Rocket machines with naked portafilters. The rest of the board is familiar: espresso, Americano, macchiato, cappuccino, latte, drip, cafe au lait, iced coffee, mocha, hot cocoa and pour-over, with almond and oat milk alongside dairy. Across the group, seasonal drinks have run to chrysanthemum, rose, chamomile, house-made vanilla and honey lavender lattes, which is where the floral edge shows.

Flat white, pour-over, something baked

Start with the flat white, since it is the drink the whole style points at and the one that shows how a lighter espresso roast behaves under milk. If a named single origin is on pour-over, order that instead and drink it slowly; it is the reason the roastery is worth standing outside for.

Food is deliberately simple. Fresh-baked pastries are what the window carries, and a croissant is the standard companion to a coffee here. Within the wider group, B.E. English muffins are the item people go out of their way for, best toasted with butter and flaky salt, so it is worth asking whether any have made it down to the window. Otherwise the visit is exactly what it looks like: one good coffee, one pastry, a bench, and the smell of the roaster behind you.