06/29/2026
***Come give Laz a hug/high five on his last day working with us tomorrow, June 30!***
In June of 2009 we started roasting coffee under our own shingle. The McMinnville Farmers Market was one of the first places the world tried our coffee and it was a great way for me to engage the community and get to know folks. At some point, I don't know what year it was, about 2010 or something, I took note of these two brothers who would haunt the market on Thursdays, baguette in hand, heads tipped toward one another as if planning some important thing young people spend time planning.
I did not know at that time that Lazarus would become such a very important part of my life, and my business to boot.
I have thought long about what to write about Laz because it's been a full ride this last decade plus. We have laughed and cried, we've both been bitterly upset with the other and we find a way through to loving one another, which we do, and which I hope we always will do, actively.
Laz is a good dad. A helpful neighbor. A useful resource to his community. He is a strong partner and a devoted friend and though this is beginning to sound a little like a eulogy, it's not death that's come for Laz but life itself.
New challenges. New responsibilities. New chores and tasks. New awarenesses of the larger things around us. New explorations. New failures, if my life is any evidence. But new heights and new levels of kindness. New depths to his understanding of the human condition, as he lives more of it, day by day.
We believe in your next step, and the next hundred steps! Let's have coffee together fairly regular-like.—Nick
