With the early morning light shining into their kitchen window, Brad and Laura Rauch often talked about their hopes and dreams over a cup of coffee, using the moment to bond before the chaos of the day. In moments like this, they fell in love.
“We both really just fell in love with coffee and the mornings,” Brad said.
Steadfast Cafe, a Huntington Beach coffee shop known for its locally roasted coffee and handcrafted drinks, was born out of this love. Earlier this month, the husband-and-wife couple brought their business to Long Beach, opening their second-ever location on the corner of Broadway and Linden Avenue.
Steadfast Cafe offers well-made familiar drink options like espressos, lattes, cappuccinos, tea, matcha and smoothies. Prices range from $3.15 for a small drip coffee to $7.95 for a large smoothie. More unique drinks include a rosemary latte, butterfly lavender matcha and rose cardamom latte.
They also offer simple sandwiches with some flair, including a blueberry grilled cheese for $13.95; the ham, Swiss and apple for $12.95; and the Cali bagel with cream cheese, avocado and lemon pepper for $7.95. Their most expensive menu item is a flight of toast for $39.95, which includes a slice of avocado toast, Mediterranean toast, sweet toast and banana toast. A slice of one of these toasts individually averages around $12.
The original Steadfast Cafe was born out of years of conversations the Rauches had about opening a business. They considered a shaved ice shop, but landed on coffee so they could spend afternoons with their kids and foster community connections over a beverage they love.
“Coffee was something that always was in our life, as a spot that we kind of came together,” Brad said. “And so in wanting a business that was a place where people could come together and talk and hang out, [and gain] a sense of community, coffee felt like the right sauce.”
After two and a half years of business in Huntington Beach, the Rauches wanted to expand and Long Beach seemed perfect.
“We’ve been searching for a long, long time for a spot that had a cool, beachy vibe. It was somewhere where there was a good amount of foot traffic, where the overall atmosphere felt like people would be down with coffee and avocado toast and breakfast sandwiches and things like that,” Brad said. “This felt right when we saw it.”
Brad said Steadfast Cafe is almost like another kid to him and Laura, and they love seeing how much it has grown.
“It’s neat to start something and really see it take off from your own creation,” Brad said.
Brad hopes to be able to open more locations in the future, though he wouldn’t want them to be too close together.
“I don’t want to be Starbucks where I’m like on every corner, but I would love to be a shop that people could get to on either side of town,” Brad said.
Steadfast Cafe, 510 E. Broadway, is open Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.