My cult leader has fallen.

Before there was Starf*cks, Coffee Bean, or fill-in-multinational-java-pusher-here, there was Peet’s.

Alfred H. Peet passed away August 29, 2007.

I was introduced to the gloriousness of Peet’s coffee in 1987 when I met Dave at World College West (aka What College Where) in Petaluma. A Berkeley guy through-and-through, Dave opened my eyes to the world of exquisite coffee (and beer, and bread, and cheese, and wine,…).

Dave’s dorm room (our rooms were in trailers) was sparse, but he managed to have an espresso machine and a constant supply of Peet’s, replenished during his weekend trips back home… trips on which I stowed away as often as possible.

Fast forward to 1991, I moved from NY to Berkeley after a BEYOND-bad breakup; NYC was no longer big enough for the two of us to coexist. Dave and Morgan welcomed me with open arms and an unlimited supply of Peet’s. (Morgan had just started working at the Solano store.) While in Berkeley, not a day went by that I didn’t have Peets.

I begrudgingly moved to Santa Barbara in 1997, leaving behind me a job promotion, a counteroffer for another job, and [gulp] Peet’s. I was left all alone to fend for myself in the gilded cage of SB, and made do with Illy, etc.

Then, within a year of my move, Peet’s came to SB, as if to console me. It’s never been quite the same as going to Solano or Vine Street, but my world is certainly better for it being here than not.

RIP, Mr. Peet.

xoxo,
Regina
Proud Peetnik since 1987

Filed under obit | Comment (0)