Little six-packs are waiting for you in Santa Ynez. No, it’s not beer—and it’s not wine.
Pony Espresso started bottling fresh cold brew during the pandemic for those caffeine-dependent customers who prefer their coffee chilled. Nero Cold Brew is 100 percent radical, according to the bottle, and 100 percent delicious, according to Pony Espresso co-owner Alberto Battaglini.
“That’s so good. It’s seriously so good. That thing is phenomenal,” Battaglini said. “We make a really soft, elegant cold brew to-go.”
And it’s only been on refrigerator shelves since the beginning of May.
Due to the stay-at-home order and pandemic restrictions, Battaglini said, they decided it would be a good idea to give locals something they could grab once a week to take home and stick in the fridge. So they created a label, found a nice package to put it in, and purchased a bottle capper.
Everything is clean and sanitized. Lavazza Italian dark roasted beans are cold-brewed and bottled immediately. People love it, Battaglini said.
The only issue?
“People like the cold brew, but they want it over ice,” he said with a laugh.
Not just any ice, though—Pony Espresso’s coffee ice, which people used to drink with their cold brew. Don’t worry though, like many other Pony specials, the coffee house was happy to serve the ice and many of its other menu items to-go during the pandemic lockdown.
Now, Battaglini said his place is looking toward the future and what it will hold as the economy gradually starts to hum back to life.
“It’s such a complicated business,” he said. “Coffee shops are easy; they are meant to be easy. This thing is making it complicated because you have to manage how many people are coming in, what exactly they’re buying.”
As of May 22, Santa Barbara County restaurants were allowed to start offering dine-in services to customers again. Before opening, though, businesses are required to perform a risk assessment and implement site-specific protection protocols. Each industry that’s allowed to open has a specific checklist of items to adhere to, and every business owner who wants to reopen has to complete an attestation form showing that they’re following all of the guidelines. Both need to be posted at the business, according to the county’s Reopening Your Business webpage.
The checklist includes cleaning and sanitation requirements, physical-distancing guidelines, and control measures.
“The protocol is 12 pages; it’s crazy,” Battaglini said.
Business will basically be 50 percent of what it was, staff will have to clean and disinfect everything more regularly, serving containers need to be disposable, and customers will need to keep their social distance. Things like menus and touch screens need to be wiped down after every use.
It will be more work, Battaglini said, but at least it’s something.
“After two months, we are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Moving into another “new normal” is both good and bad, he said. It’s good because you don’t want anyone to catch anything funky, and bad because you’re going to be operating at half of your capacity.
“Fifty percent of the people think that going out will be a stupid idea, and we have 50 percent of the people who think going out is a great idea because we’re tired of being at home,” he said with a laugh. “You can’t make everybody happy.”
From the beginning of the stay-at-home orders issued in March, operating has been difficult. With the rules constantly changing, it’s been hard to navigate, Battaglini said, but luckily Pony Espresso has done a pretty good job and has the support of the community and its staff.
Once the shelter-at-home orders went into place, Battaglini asked his staff whether they wanted to work or preferred that the shop closed for a while. Staffers wanted to work, he said, because they had bills to pay. So he figured out a way to adhere to the measures that were in place for restaurants to offer food for customers to take home.
Sales dropped by 70 percent in the first few weeks. He applied for a Paycheck Protection Program loan and got approved, so that helped, Battaglini said.
“And slowly by slowly, we are doing a little bit more sales, and every sale counts,” he said. “We are already operating on a small margin.”
Battaglini has been in Santa Ynez for seven or eight years, opening Pony Espresso about a year and a half ago. He was the general manager for S.Y. Kitchen before that. And the first year was great, he said.
“The first year, maybe you make it, maybe you don’t. So I was feeling a little bit relaxed,” he said. “[Business] kept climbing and then suddenly,
ba-bom, the whole COVID shut everything down.”
He describes the coffee house as rustic yet modern with high-quality, fresh ingredients like olive oil. Pony Espresso serves up salads in addition to French pastries, paninis, avocado toast, and breakfast burritos. Of course, there’s also that good Italian coffee.
Cappuccino.
Espresso.
Shakeratoa couple of shots of espresso, simple syrup, and a hint of mint extract shaken over ice.
Affogatoa couple of shots of espresso served with gelato or ice cream.
And then there’s the biscotti. It’s Italian style—so it’s soft, not crunchy—and baked by Santa Ynez’s own Ron Colone.
“He contacted me and he said, ‘Hey I have this product, what do you think?’ And I was like, ‘I love it!’” Battaglini said.
The sense of community that Santa Ynez fosters is something Battaglini said he’s grateful for. Local customers have become friends, and it feels like everyone is living in this same strange space together, trying to get through this moment.
“We are all friends,” he said. “We all want the same thing and work toward it together.”
Editor Camillia Lanham is jonesin’ for an affogato. Send ice cream and espresso to claham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 4, 2020.