On the Graffeo Espresso roastery in North Seaside, San Francisco. All pictures courtesy of Walter Haas, Graffeo, except in any other case famous.

San Francisco’s oldest impartial espresso roaster — to not point out one of many oldest craft roasters in North America — Graffeo Espresso is beneath recent possession.

Walter Haas III — a member of the Haas household that grew Levi Strauss & Co. right into a family title all through the twentieth century — bought a majority stake within the espresso enterprise from 81-year-old Luciano Repetto, who had been proprietor and first roaster of the 90-year-old firm for the previous 47 years.

Haas and Repetto declined to share monetary particulars of the acquisition past clarifying that Repetto stays a associate, co-owner, shareholder and proprietor of the Graffeo constructing within the “Little Italy” space of San Francisco’s North Seaside neighborhood.

By way of the change, Graffeo will proceed to supply its signature mix of coffees from Colombia, Costa Rica’s Tarrazu area and Papua New Guinea, roasted both mild or darkish, plus a decaf espresso. The enterprise stays centered solely on roasting, with no brewed espresso service.

Luciano Repetto on the Sivetz machine.

“Luciano nonetheless roasts sometimes,” Haas just lately advised Day by day Espresso Information. “He is available in within the mornings and can roast and can run the register. At 81 years younger, he’s actually earned his retirement, however he’s a fixture right here.”

The Graffeo roastery in North Seaside continues to heart on a custom-built fluid mattress roaster utilizing Sivetz know-how. Repetto has tailored and re-tooled the roaster not less than 9 occasions over time. The corporate additionally maintains a smaller roastery with one other fluid-bed machine in San Rafael to serve clients in Marin County.

Regardless of his outstanding place within the firm — which was based in 1935 when Italian immigrant Giovanni Graffeo opened a small grocery with roasted espresso in Little Italy — Haas is comfy ceding the reins of the Sivetz machines.

“I want in all probability 30 extra years to be taught it,” Haas stated. “Then I’ll really feel comfy.”

Haas earned a B.A. from Stanford and an M.B.A. from Harvard earlier than transferring into advertising and marketing at Levi Strauss and Get pleasure from Know-how Inc. He has additionally based corporations within the IT and advertising and marketing sectors and served as a producer with Los Angeles-based Pink Slip Productions.

Haas stated these experiences have helped form how he approaches storytelling and advertising and marketing, with a particular give attention to brand-building.

Walter Haas and Luciano Repetto.

“It’s been my life’s objective to construct the subsequent nice American heritage model,” Haas stated. “[Brands are] very delicate issues that should be tended to, however while you get it proper, you construct one thing that enters tradition and imprints into all of our lives… By being uncovered to all these completely different nice corporations in varied fields and dealing with all these superb folks, I’ve given loads of thought to what makes a model.”

For starters, Haas stated a model “should be rooted in a improbable product,” which requires deep authenticity and should be distinctive. These are all qualities that drew him to Graffeo.

As a sixth-generation San Franciscan, Haas was already a longtime fan of Graffeo. After promoting his firm GIST to Northbeam, and searching for alternatives exterior the tech sphere, Haas basically cold-called his approach into the world of espresso.

“The entire remainder of the world was transferring to know-how,” stated Haas. “I believe because the world will get extra into being AI-centric, we people are going to require deeper connections to extra genuine experiences and genuine manufacturers and extra human issues.”

Now Haas is on a mission to attach Graffeo with extra people, together with these past the Bay.

“Everybody who is aware of about Graffeo loves Graffeo, and everybody else has by no means heard of Graffeo,” stated Haas. “My job is simply merely to reveal Graffeo to nearly all of the world.”

Haas is main a “marketing-by-exposure” effort that has included hiring Graffeo’s first-ever gross sales staff and visiting specialty, connoisseur and impartial grocery shops for sampling.

Picture by Daria Toptygina.

“It’s not about altering our manufacturing or altering our beans or including completely different merchandise,” stated Haas. “It’s about simply bringing the model to extra folks and letting them fall in love.”

After 90 years, Graffeo just lately celebrated its designation as a legacy enterprise by the San Francisco Historic Preservation Fee.

The following chapter of that legacy is presently being written behind closed doorways.

“All I can say is we’re within the very early levels of planning for some type of espresso service in our roastery location, however it’s a little bit of a secret and a shock of what that’s gonna appear like,” Haas stated. “You received’t see something quickly, however that’s approaching the roadmap.”

Graffeo is positioned at 735 Columbus Ave in San Francisco.

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