Drip Coffee’s Cabrillo College location. Photo courtesy of Drip Coffee
The Cuesta College Board of Trustees has approved a contract with Northern California coffee provider Drip Coffee to open a café in Cuesta’s newest building, which is expected to be finished by January 2026.
Drip Coffee specializes in serving gourmet coffee and teas, iced beverages, grab-and-go sandwiches, breakfast burritos, salads, wraps, parfaits and other assorted snacks.
“We offer all the basics that you can find at a Starbucks – the lattes, the espresso and the caramel fraps, but we also create our own seasonal specials that are always rotating. Some favorites are our salted maple donut latte, our winter mint matcha, our lavender London fog, and our chai latte,” Drip Coffee owner and CEO Katherine Bailey said.
Drip Coffee has been serving Northern California community college campuses for over 33 years, with current locations at Foothill College, Evergreen College, San Jose City College, Sierra College, Santa Rosa Junior College, Cabrillo College, as well as various medical and corporate campuses.
Bailey opened her first location in 1992, at the age of 22, at a Kaiser hospital. She was inspired after visiting a friend in the hospital and seeing just how “limited and unsatisfactory the coffee and food options were,” she said.
Bailey started with a four-foot cart she built herself, and was quickly asked to expand into seven other Kaiser locations. and eventually, Foothill College, which started her career-long relationship serving community colleges.
Cuesta Assistant Superintendent and VP of Admin Services Todd Hampton, said both Drip Coffee and Bailey herself, stood out in the interview process. “She understands the campus community’s student preferences, providing clean and inviting surroundings, offering fun and appealing menus, and above all, a priority for her staff to connect with customers,” he said.
Hampton highlighted something Bailey herself said in an interview: “You can teach anyone to make coffee, but serving is a lost art.”
Bailey can be found most days still behind the counter herself, working at one of the cafe’s locations. “I really just love being around students who are youthful and full of hope and aspirations for how they’re going to help our world,” she said. “It’s a fun place to work, and most of that credit goes to my employees who have helped me create this work culture.”
Bailey is particularly excited to create a new gathering space for Cuesta, something that has been missing on campus since the closure of the cafeteria in 2020 due to COVID safety concerns.
“I like creating community – that’s what we do. We really try to make gathering spaces where people can come together and talk, agree and disagree, and learn,” Bailey said.
Affordability is also front of mind for the business owner when it comes to serving the college demographic. This concern is at an all-time high for Bailey because, “everyday is a new day when it comes to Trump’s tariffs and pricing. The pricing that I pay for something today, could be 20% higher tomorrow, and then I have to pass that on. So, this means editing the menu to keep affordable options available,” she said.
While both the finalized menu and opening date for Drip Coffee at Cuesta are still undetermined, Bailey promised, “we will have a little bit of everything for everybody.”