Caje Coffee Roasters has opened its sixth location, a cafe and roastery at the corner of Patterson Avenue and Hollister Avenue in Goleta, giving the Santa Barbara coffee brand its first new store in two years. The shop sits at 5340 Hollister Ave., inside a shopping center, and is open Tuesday through Sunday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed Mondays.
Owner Ryan Patronyk told Noozhawk in September that the Goleta store is Caje's sixth location and its first new opening in two years, featuring specialty drinks not available at the company's other shops. It marks Caje's first expansion since the brand entered Ventura. The new roastery is situated next to Herbay Pharmacy in the shopping center and sits directly across the street from Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, per the seed reporting from Edhat.
From Isla Vista Cafe to Six-Shop Coastal Brand
Caje's roots trace back to 2004, when it began as a small cafe in Isla Vista near UC Santa Barbara, serving college students for more than two decades while roasting all of its coffee in small batches on-site, according to the same Edhat report. That original Isla Vista location served as Caje's sole roastery prior to the opening of the new Goleta facility, as Noozhawk reported in a 2019 piece on the company's history.
The company now operates six locations across Santa Barbara and Ventura counties: the Isla Vista store, a spot at Arlington and State Street in downtown Santa Barbara, a location in the 800 block of State Street at Paseo Nuevo, a Haley Street cafe near the Funk Zone, the Ventura outpost at 71 N. Palm Street, and the new Patterson roastery in Goleta. The brand name CAJÉ was originally established as an acronym for Coffee, Art, Juice, Entertainment, according to 805foodie, reflecting the company's multi-faceted approach to hospitality and beverages.
A Roastery That Might Become the Main One
Edhat's reporting notes that the new Patterson location may serve as a second roasting facility, though the article reports uncertainty around whether the Goleta site could ultimately take over the company's roasting operations entirely. Either way, the Goleta site is a cafe and roastery.
Caje roasts its own coffee and espresso blends, which are sold for purchase at every location. The shops also serve ceremonial grade matcha, whisked to order, sourced directly from the Yamasaki family's farm in Uji, Japan — the birthplace of matcha, according to the seed facts in Edhat's report.
Signature Drinks and a Day-to-Night Business Model
Beyond standard lattes, bagels, smoothies, and acai bowls, Caje has built a reputation on inventive, mixology-inspired coffee drinks. Santabarbara.com's The Restaurant Guy highlighted two signatures: The Yemen, a hot coconut milk mocha made with pure cacao and sweetened condensed milk and served with a flaming roasted marshmallow, and The Burnout, a breve latte with bourbon-pecan syrup and activated charcoal, served hot with a ginger-and-blackberry garnish.
That blending of coffeehouse craft with bar-style presentation isn't new for the company. Caje's Haley Street location launched in 2019 with a zero-single-use-cup policy requiring customers to bring their own cup or pay a refundable deposit, while sharing its space with an evening speakeasy called Lab Social, according to Barista Magazine. That concept was developed alongside general manager Troy Yamasaki and mixologist Sean Sepulveda. The Ventura location follows a similar dual-identity model: the cafe at 71 N. Palm St. occupies a two-story Craftsman-era home designated City of San Buenaventura Landmark No. 89, and transforms at 4 p.m. into Ten Tigers, a Pan-Asian restaurant and craft cocktail bar, per 805foodie's reporting.
Owner's Wider Footprint in Santa Barbara Food Scene
Patronyk's business interests extend beyond Caje. During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, he co-founded Wingman Rodeo, Santa Barbara's first dedicated chicken wing concept, operating out of a cloud kitchen on Milpas Street alongside local partners Colton Krueger and Dudley Michael, according to Edhat.
