n TASTE
FROM THE GROUND UP
Father and stepdaughter create new identity for Trail Coffee Roasters in Stockton
BY Debra Belt PHOTOS: Ryan Angel Meza
T
Gianna Vicari and Bing Kirk
rebranded Trail Coffee Roasters
from Jesus Mountain Coffee to
reflect the international coffee
trail from seed to cup.
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comstocksmag.com | October 201 8
rail Coffee, a bustling café on an ac-
tivated corner in downtown Stock-
ton, has come a long way from its
startup as a back-alley roaster. In the
last four years, the business has moved
twice, rebranded and expanded into
a 3,500-square-foot roastery, café and
test kitchen in the refurbished Owl Drug
Store building on E. Main and California
streets.
The recent evolution of Trail, a
company that co-owns a coffee farm
in Nicaragua and has been roasting in
the Central Valley since 2000, was or-
chestrated by founder Bing Kirk and
his stepdaughter Gianna Vicari. Kirk
reached out to Vicari in 2014 after cus-
tomers repeatedly requested he serve
the coffee he roasts. Vicari was living in
Brooklyn, making jewelry and working
in a boutique. Kirk figured she could use
her ingenuity and creativity to help the
business grow.
“I had an idea that we could start
this adventure of a café and coffee
roasting business,” he says.
Together Kirk and Vicari created a
new identity for what is now a vertically-
integrated business overseeing its own
growing, roasting and retail operations.
Rebranding from Jesus Mountain
Coffee, the new name of Trail Coffee
Roasters represents the international
coffee trail from seed to cup. In addition
to opening its flagship café amid
downtown Stockton’s resurgence,Trail
sells its coffee to more than 300 stores in
Northern California and has increased
its roasting production by 1,000 pounds
per month since 2014.