The First-Ever Camp Espresso Store will happen in Napa, Calif., in August, and also you’re invited!
BY KENNETH R. OLSON
BARISTA MAGAZINE
Espresso execs, café house owners, and aspiring operators—your summer season simply obtained a serious improve. Camp Espresso Store, the first-of-its-kind enterprise retreat with a full-blown summer season camp twist, opens registration February 25, 2026. From August 10–13, a sprawling 300-acre Napa Valley property turns into a playground for critical café operators who need to construct smarter, stronger, and extra sustainable companies, with out sacrificing enjoyable.
Early fowl pricing runs via April 30 (register right here), and with fewer than 150 spots, this isn’t your common espresso convention. Assume hands-on workshops, peer-to-peer connections, and extra time fixing actual issues than strolling infinite commerce present aisles.
“In additional than 20 years of publishing Barista Journal, I’ve at all times dreamed of making an occasion that brings our neighborhood collectively in particular person,” says Sarah Allen, co-organizer of Camp Espresso Store. “Camp Espresso Store pairs critical, sensible schooling with the form of shared experiences and pleasure that make summer season camp unforgettable.”
This 12 months’s lineup contains keynotes from two of specialty espresso’s brightest minds: Andrea Allen, co-owner of Onyx Espresso Lab in Arkansas, identified for pushing the boundaries of café design and operational excellence; and Ian Williams, proprietor of Deadstock Espresso in Oregon, celebrated for mixing tradition, neighborhood, and sustainability into thriving espresso areas. Their classes will supply insights from real-world expertise, exhibiting how daring concepts and sensible methods mix to construct cafés that final.
With such a small cohort, each attendee will get entry to instructors and friends like by no means earlier than. “As an alternative of speeding between crowded cubicles and packed lectures, contributors work instantly on their very own enterprise challenges,” Sarah says. “It’s hands-on, intimate, and designed so each particular person leaves with a transparent plan and a robust community, not only a tote bag stuffed with samples.”
The curriculum blends sensible and enjoyable. From plant-milk latte artwork demos to revenue planning, staffing buildings, workflow design, menu technique, drink improvement, and long-term progress, Camp Espresso Store offers academic alternatives for espresso professionals at each stage of their profession. Attendees go away with new espresso expertise, ready-to-use monetary templates, workflow frameworks, and motion plans they’ll implement the minute they return residence.
“Camp Espresso Store teaches you the way to construct a greater enterprise,” Sarah says. “We cowl the unglamorous however important elements of operating a café: monetary methods, staffing, workflow, and sustainability. Nail these, and your corporation can thrive.”
And sure, it’s a summer season camp too, so there’s loads of enjoyable. The Enchanted Hills retreat, the place Camp Espresso Store will likely be held, is a outstanding setting. In truth, the property has just below gone a whole transformation after a wildfire. It’s a pure wonderland: 300+ acres of trails, poolside hangs, arts and crafts, curated night actions, and moments to attach outdoors the classroom, the place among the finest concepts are born.
“Camp Espresso Store is critical about enterprise, nevertheless it’s additionally genuinely enjoyable,” Sarah says. “The shared experiences—the hikes, the poolside chats, the night actions—are the place actual connections occur, and new concepts are born.”
Whether or not you’re operating a neighborhood café, launching your first store, or managing a number of areas, Camp Espresso Store delivers concentrated, sensible enterprise schooling with a facet of summer season camp magic. Customized steerage, small group classes, and a neighborhood able to swap tales, share insights, and cheer you on make it a must-attend occasion.
House is proscribed, so early registration is strongly inspired. For espresso professionals who need to construct sustainable, systems-driven cafés—and have some critical enjoyable whereas doing it—Camp Espresso Store in Napa this August is the place it’s worthwhile to be.
About Camp Espresso Store
Camp Espresso Store is a enterprise schooling program serving to café operators construct financially sustainable, systems-driven espresso companies via intensive workshops, sensible instruments, and a robust peer community. Register right here.
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