On the road to Homer, Alaska,
we hit on the idea of Mudhouse,
a cool and funky coffeehouse
that embodied westcoast spirit
in a fun neighborhood living
room. The coffee had to be
powerful. We wanted it to be a space of open dialogue for the whole community. We wanted to bring together artists, builders, professors, poets, lawyers, singers, painters, Goths, crafts-
men, cyberheads, skatepunks and the city council…well, you get the idea. This is what coffeehouses have been for hundreds of years for people from Vienna and Paris to Boston and Berserkeley…a place to crack open your head...

So when we got back home, we met with SCORE and hatched a plan. The plan was to start with a little cart. It was the brutal winter of '93-'94. Bitter cold. The ice was
so thick you could not see the earth. The wind had talons. We pushed that cart up and down the Downtown Mall backwards, barefoot, in the knee deep snow with our little red wagon filled with coolers and beans and cups. Bob and George saw us through, stopping by everyday for espresso. City Market let us set up between the fruit and vegetable stands. The Mudhut became a coffeehouse without walls, with buskers and chess and great conversations. In '95 we opened Mudhouse proper; putting a roof over our heads served us well and here we stand today. People soaked in super fine coffee make the coffeehouse. We thank all of our staff who have worked so hard over the years, taking great care to bring their best drinks to the counter with a smile and a good word… it is the love in their hearts that makes the coffee rock. We thank our families and Joe for all their guidance. And we thank all of our customers who have made Mudhouse the cool, funky, neighborhood coffeehouse we had hoped it would become and for making the Mudhouse espresso bars the welcome places to stop when you're on the road, jack.