Renovations at Mission City Coffee Roasting Co.

Although always a warm and welcoming space with good acoustics, the side room at Mission City Coffee was plagued with a large, central pillar that obstructed lines of sight throughout the room. The pillar supported a low, massive support beam that gave the room a claustrophobic feel despite the soaring height of the ceiling. The obstructing pillar can be seen in each of these three pictures. (Click on the thumbnails to enlarge.)

Folks arriving for the SBF open mike were surprised and amazed to find that the new, laminated support beam which had arrived that morning had already been raised and installed. Jae and his staff were busy sweeping up and cleaning off tables to open the room for the very first performances in the newly enlarged space. The room is now much wider; the obstructing pillar is gone; and the new, slim, laminated support beam now reveals the expansive height of the room. The most commonly heard phrase that night was "It's really big!"

Cleaned up and painted; more to come...

After a month of experimenting with performances in different parts of the new space, it was determined that the end of the room against the mural provided for the best acoustics, and on the weekend of September 30th, a stage began to take shape. The stage is expected to be finished in time for the following Thursday's SBF open mike.