February 13, 2017

Meet Casey Goch & Ren Fuller-Wasserman of Shreebs Coffee in Arts District

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Goch & Ren Fuller-Wasserman.

Ren, Casey – we’d love to hear how all this got started.

Shreebs Coffee began as a backyard project in the summer of 2012 in Venice, CA. We wanted to do something fun that would bring our friends and neighbors together in a genuine way. It was also an outlet for us to share our love for coffee and the connection that it brings to a community. Back then we sourced locally roasted coffee and served it pour-over style on a donation basis. Sometimes (when we woke up early enough :), we baked fresh pastries to go with the coffee. It was simple and sweet and began to attract many creatives in the area. I guess you could say it was a true “pop-up” concept before the term became household. This went on every weekend for over a year.

We then built a mobile coffee bar and housed it inside a Hollywood laundromat. The idea remained the same, bring our love for coffee and relaxed vibe to an unexpected location and serve that community. From there we took off doing various “pop-ups” in various locations and in between pop-ups, we also began catering events.

In 2015, an opportunity came to us to open a shop in the Arts District, inside of a shipping container. We loved this concept and thought it was a great synergy of our past and where we were headed. The Arts District is an unbelievable neighborhood, with so many creatives and an amazing energy, it was exciting for us to get to be a part of that. We began roasting our own beans here in LA as well as building out our coffee program to include chef-crafted flavors to pair with the coffee.

Today, we are open 7 days a week at the Arts District shop and have a thriving catering business servicing corporate partners, private events, and community gatherings all over LA.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many challenges along the way. Of course, there are the usual obstacles of starting any business, but to evolve our backyard project into a business definitely took some major work and creating a company we are proud of is a day-to-day challenge. Now perhaps, our biggest challenge is operating our business out of a tiny space. We are quickly outgrowing the container so have to be sure everything inside it serves a purpose.

Shreebs Coffee – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Shreebs is a coffee shop, a coffee catering service, a community hub, a connector. We are known for our single-origin, organic coffees and our unique chef-crafted flavors like the Cardamon Dulce Latte, Choco Chili Latte, Horchata Latte, and Smokin’ Campfire Coffee Lattes. We host community yoga at our shop every Saturday morning from 9-10AM, we publish a blog called SHREEBSxCOMMON featuring local artists and makers and are working hard towards creating a brand that connects and shares in a genuine way. We are most proud of our products and our focus on customer service and the community experience. I think that’s what sets us apart from others, our focus on people.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Building a business is tough stuff, but there are moments that remind you it is all worth it. Seeing people walk around the neighborhood with Shreebs cups, getting new catering clients via other happy customers, overhearing people talk about how they met at Shreebs, these are the moments that make us very proud.

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