When the team at Cafecito Organico decided it was time to expand and open its sixth location in California, the coffee roasting company called on Built Inc., a California-based design/build firm, to do the job. The new 900-square-foot space will occupy part of the former home of Sunkist at the Anaheim Packing House in the historic Anaheim Packing District. The newly restored packing house will debut on May 31st as Orange County’s first food hall, showcasing beverages and fare from more than 20 artisanal food producers and purveyors.
Cafecito Organico, a roasting company based in Los Angeles, will serve as the exclusive coffee vendor for the Anaheim Packing District, providing customers with the highest quality of coffee sourced from Central America. Having collaborated with John Sofio and Sormeh Azad of Built Inc. on several Cafecito Organico locations before, the firm was tapped again, this time, to create a roadside coffee shop with both modern and vintage touches. The goal was to design a unique space for the Anaheim community, offering customers Cafecito beverages and pastries within this diverse shopping and dining center.
Housed in the former Sunkist fruit-packing plant, which has been unoccupied for 10 years, Built Inc. created an open floor plan spanning across the building’s two levels. The design of the coffee shop was inspired by the historic vibe of the building in addition to Cafecito Organico’s focus on fresh, quality ingredients and sustainable practices. Sofio and Azad incorporated the building’s historic structure into the design wherever possible, creating a vintage feel by architecturally skewing the structure out from the packing house walls, and making it more visible within the packing house. With sustainability in mind, Built Inc. repurposed vintage lumber used in previous work from a barn in Ohio. To complement the packing plant’s interior, which is skinned in repurposed pine wood, Built Inc. painted and fabricated the repurposed wood into diagonal one-by-six feet-long walls, also made of pine. Customization is a very important design element to Sofio and Azad--- the team designed and customized a 1920s-style billboard to cover the back wall behind the service counter with a hand-painted Cafecito Organico logo to emphasize the antique feel of the space.
This latest incarnation of Cafecito Organico breathes new life into the Anaheim Packing District, with a blended vintage and modern atmosphere for this new coffee spot.
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