Local Coffee

Architect: Clayton and Little Architects

Millwork: Campbell Millwork

Photo Credits: WoodCo

Materials Used: Long Leaf Pine Lumber
Reclaimed Long Leaf Pine Lumber

Local Coffee is a small business chain of shops exclusively in San Antonio, TX providing locals with their own personally-sourced beans, which gives control and responsibility for the quality coffee in your cup. Local Coffee opened its first shop in 2009 and with customer loyalty and appreciation they opened three more cafe's and the launch of their own roasting facility Merit Roasting. Co. What makes Local Coffee so unique is the precision and detail of your own specialty brewed coffee finished with latte art and customer approach.

When opening their location at the Pearl Brewery, architect firm Clayton and Little saw the use of the Joske's wood all around the Pearl and came to WoodCo to provide Long Leaf Pine lumber for the tables and counter tops matching the Brewery's ambiance. WoodCo more than happily supplied the last of the Joske's wood for the project and would go on to work more projects of Local Coffee - most recently the new Shavano Park location.

What makes Long Leaf Pine so special? Long leaf pines, which once covered an estimated 90 million acres, now cover less than 3 percent of their original range. This tree was once so abundant that it seemed like an inexhaustible resource to early settlers. Forests of long leaf pine were cleared to make space for development and agriculture. The lumber, which is of exceptional quality, was used for building ships and railroads. Most of the long leaf pines were gone by the 1920s, and they had a hard time coming back on their own because of fire suppression. Rather than replanting the long leaf pines, foresters replaced them with faster-growing pines that would produce more short-term economic benefits. Restoration of long leaf pine forests has become a major conservation priority in recent years, though. Over 30 endangered and threatened species, including red-cockaded woodpeckers and indigo snakes, rely on long leaf pine for habitat. Additionally, long leaf pines are more resilient than other southeastern pines to the negative impacts of climate change. They can withstand severe windstorms, resist pests, tolerate wildfires and drought and capture carbon pollution from the atmosphere. A number of nonprofits, government agencies, and private landowners are collaborating to restore long leaf pine forests. - sourced by the National Wildlife Federation.