Where: Nautical Bean Coffee Company, 240 Harbor Dr, Oceanside, CA 92054
Open: 7 a.m.- 2 p.m. daily
What: Batch Brewed Nightwatch Coffee Puerto Rico
Roast: Medium
Tasting notes: Full Bodied, baker’s chocolate
Find them at: https://nauticalbean.com/ • @nauticalbeancoffeecompany on Facebook
What I’m listening to: Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.”
I had thrown on my thickest knit sweater and wool cap for this adventure by the sea. It isn’t cold, but it isn’t warm out either. It feels like a perfect seaside morning at Oceanside Harbor. The winds are calm. The skies are grey. Sailboats and fishing rigs bob slightly just off the edge of the dock. Occasionally, a gull wings by singing a lullaby or squawking out a cry for humanity. It is hard to tell what the gull is thinking.
You’ve got to want to get to Nautical Bean Coffee. It is a twisting left, left, right off the exit from the 5 or a casual cruise through coastal Oceanside until you pop over the bridge above the San Luis Rey River into Oceanside Harbor Village. Today I want to. I think I do.
It isn’t busy when I arrive at this coffee shop in the harbor. Both employees are working on making breakfast for waiting customers. “It used to be a lot easier when all we did was serve coffee,” the barista shouts over the blending of a smoothie. I’m pleasantly surprised by the full menu of breakfast sandwiches, pastries, smoothies, and so on.
The prices feel a bit high—that tourist bump, but not objectionably so. I wouldn’t think twice about it at a fancy coffee shop in the city somewhere. I think I’ve preemptively dismissed this place due to its location and my ingrained thoughts about the quality of coffee boat captains prefer.
I’m reassured I’ll be served momentarily and take the time to look around. Nautical Bean has a semi-permanent feel. The entryway feels like a three-season room with a station for coffee condiments like cream and sugar and shelving filled with merch — coffee mugs, tees, etc.
I order my standard batch-brewed, black drip coffee. The cafe has more than one option of Nightwatch Coffee ready to pour.
Nightwatch is the house roast developed and brewed for Captain John M. Alvarez, owner of Nautical Bean by Daymar Coffee, an El Cajon-based coffee roaster. They’ve been roasting Nightwatch since 1995 and coffee, generally, since the mid-1960s, if my math is correct.
The barista smiles, and we exchange pleasantries as he hands me my coffee — coffee people are so lovely. I step away, and he asks the grizzled sailor behind me to step up and order. “Cinnamon Almond Oat Milk Latte with whip, please!” he says, or something to that effect.
My coffee is dark and hot. It is possible I can see a future storm brewing at sea in the slight foam at the top. There is indoor seating across the sidewalk from the coffee counter. It’s indoor but open air with a high rail and stools that look out at boats with names like The Flying Dolphin, Chalupa, Serenity Now!!!, and Renee. It is a really nice space that looks like it was recently updated.
There are a few spots, but the marine layer has started to recede, so I take my coffee to one of the concrete and tile round tables with unimpeded views out at the boats.
Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” emanates from speakers somewhere nearby. I nod along, sip my coffee, and look at the water. The surface is a calm glassy sheet reflecting the boats and the white of the clouds. I imagine sea creatures scurrying about below, hunting for their equivalent of a morning coffee.
When I reach the bottom of my cup, I stand to leave, but something about this spot compels me to sit back down for a moment. Perhaps the spirit of adventure comes with a visit to the ocean. Maybe it is a siren singing me a song that only I can hear. Perhaps it is because I’m considering another coffee, or more likely, an oat milk latte with plenty of whip.
• Nightwatch Coffee (and their story) is available online at https://www.nightwatchcoffee.com/.
Want to hear the stories of local coffee entrepreneurs or learn how to brew a better cup of coffee at home? Listen to the Coffee People and Coffee Smarter podcasts. You can even stream the latest episodes on The Coast News! Check out the recent interview with North County’s Alden Hozouri, Founder of Crossings Coffee.
