Coffee Break: Albany's Local 123

Local 123 and Flowerland is the East Bay's version of S.F. favorite Flora Grubb.

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Local 123 serves coffee and pastries daily, and sandwiches on weekends.

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The cafe is situated in Flowerland Nursery, which was first opened in the 1940s. The current owner, Carly Dennett, bought Flowerland about three-and-a-half years ago (she's only the third person to own the historic business). At the time, it was mostly selling sod, pesticides, and fertilizers. "It was kind of stuck in time," she says. Now, green-thumbed shoppers can peruse aisle upon aisle of flowers, vegetable starters, succulents, garden accessories, outdoor furniture, and more at the shop. "Dennett, a Local 123 regular, approached me about setting up a coffee cart at her nursery. We had been looking for the right second location for over a year at that time and I knew immediately from her vibe and her gorgeous shop that this was it," says Hoffman.

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Before the 1969 Airstream was home to Local 123, it belonged to Oakland's Remedy Coffee. Hoffman and her team of helpers worked for three months to revamp the interior and bring it up to Alameda County's rigorous health code. "We enlisted the help of our artist friend and Local 123 Gallery curator Alex Case to fix the shoddy cover-up work, build out a proper hand sink, add storage shelving and stereo cabinet areas, install aluminum cove base, clean up and seal existing wood finishes, repair plumbing lines, reroute the precariously hung electrical conduit, and rodent- and weatherproof the trailer's floor. Friends and family helped repaint, deep clean the interior and aluminum exterior, and adorn the trailer," recounts Hoffman.

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Hoffman let us tour the interior. Here's the side door.

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Once inside, Hoffman (right) and Ebel (left) make an espresso drink. "With the help of our roaster friends at Four Barrel, we revived a 3-group Linea-AV La Marzocco, our workhorse of an espresso machine," says Hoffman.

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"Most of the existing brewing equipment was damaged or beyond repair, so we bought a Fetco Extractor for small-batch drip brewing, set up an inexpensive but sleek pourover bar (scale, Hario v60 dripper, Able Kone metal and paper filters), installed a new Ditting for grinding bulk coffee and Mazzer Kony-E for espresso," says Hoffman.

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Some fine latte work by Ebel; the drink was excellent.

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Cake stands sourced from local thrift shops display an array of cookies and sandwiches. On any given day you might find dark chocolate sea salt cookies, flourless peanut butter cookies, and hand-rolled vegan truffles.

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Here's some of the cafe's glassware emblazoned with their logo.

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Local 123's creamer station rests atop an orange metal ironing board found at Berkeley's Urban Ore.

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The nursery has continually been in operation since the 1940s and is peppered with vintage artifacts.

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A diorama inside the nursery shop, which is prime for perusing.

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Local 123 is open Wednesday through Monday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Tuesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (though the nursery is closed Tuesdays. Find the cafe at 1330 Solano Avenue in Albany, California. For more information, please visit local123cafe.com.

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