COME for the coffee, stay for the wine is the inspirational mantra of Diana Corville (above right), co-owner of California Coffee and Wine. It’s on a board outside the all-day cafe on Oxford Street, Altrincham.
This classy combo of bean and grape is the culmination of a long-held dream for Canadian Diana and her husband Justin Orozco from Los Angeles. The pair met in Las Vegas eight years ago, married and moved to the UK, where for seven years they scrimped and saved, Justin working in the fashion business (latterly within House of Fraser) and Diana as a primary teacher, then in hospitality.
Justin’s enduring passion is coffee. That’s why he gets up every morning at 6am to roast beans for the day’s coffee. Even on one of his rare days off, which is when I ran into him (above) in Batch Bottlestore.
Their mission is to serve coffee within 24 hours of roasting when it’s at its best. As Tom sipped an Americano (after a glass of Californian Stonehedge Zinfandel, purely for research purposes) Diana offered us samples of older beans and those from that morning’s roasting. No comparison. And what beans. Biodynamic, sourced from a collective in South East India, they come in ‘green’ and are roasted down in the basement in the in–house artisan 3e energy-efficient, fluid bed coffee roaster, imported from Oregon.
For their small batch production they resort to alkaline ‘restored’ water to ensure its purity. The rest of the drink selection, tea, juices and the like, are all scrupulously artisan. That ethos applies to their boutique range of wines, majoring in but not exclusively from California. Expect organic, biodynamic, some natural and low in sulfites.
Food is simple, ranging from Californian hot cakes and croissants at breakfast through paninis, salads and sandwiches at lunch to charcuterie, dips, cheeses and breads later when you’ve finally moved from the coffee into the wine zone.
California Coffee and Wine, 3 Oxford Rd, Altrincham WA14 2DY, 0161 928 8800.