Vincent M. Franco
Staff Writer
After serving quality coffee to the City of La Verne for the past five years, Cactus Coffee will now be operating under new management and a new name. The original owner, Jeremy Jenewein, feels now is the best time to hand over his cozy little coffee shop, in order to give it a fresh new start.
Located on D Street right across the street from the University of La Verne, Cactus Coffee offers students and downtown La Verne visitors a place to study or just to sit back and relax.
The new owners, married couple Maharasyi Hanza and Tyrone Rudulph, plan to keep that same vibe but in their own way with their own aesthetics.
“It’s not like it’s been horrible … for me, it’s just a lot. I’m a little burnt out,” said Jenewein, who wants to hand over the torch now that he has reached his stride with the shop.
Before opening Cactus, Jenewein had never worked with coffee in his life.
Hanza and Rudulph on the other hand had the free time only a pandemic can offer to research and plan before starting up their pop-up coffee shop Nambah Coffee, the name of which they plan on keeping for the permanent store front.
As a pop-up Nambah Coffee offers bottled cold brew, tamacha cold brew, and even distributes their own whole bean coffee. An essentially fully mobile coffee shop, they do espresso bar catering for events, and install nitro kegs at different restaurant locations.
Nevertheless, Nambah Coffee will be settling down in about a month, after almost two years of being mobile.
“The location that we found now just really really fit our journey really well and the direction we were going so, yeah we’re just fortunate to be able to find something right in the community that we already live in,” said Rudulph.
As La Verne residents, they have been drawn to appreciate the small town type lifestyle, and are excited to share their love of coffee with their neighbors. Owning and operating a small business in La Verne is important to them, as they hope to contribute to the city’s culture.
Hanza is the one taking the lead on the new interior design direction of the shop. But she wants to give as little information as possible when it comes to what she has planned, leaving some room for surprise.
“There will definitely be some changes, a lot of art influences, a lot of bali inspired designs, make it a little more loungy,” Hanza said.
On top of being coffee connoisseurs, Hanza and Rudulph are also professional musicians, so visitors can expect to see some live music performances at Nambah.
“As a singer-songwriter myself, I really really value the work that songwriters put in, so we definitely will be creating a space for creatives to do that, for musicians to do that,” Hanza said.
Even with all the planned changes, you can still expect to see some familiar faces at Nambah, as the old staff will still be behind the counter.
“I’m excited to see what happens, you know, it’ll be a change definitely, I think cactus has become kind of a staple for a lot of people in La Verne and the surrounding areas you know, so it’ll be interesting to see how it changes,” said Amber Farrar, a barista at the coffee shop.
Hanza and Rudulph are both excited to be a part of the thriving community here in La Verne, hoping to help it grow. As well as the new friendships and relationships that are going to come out of it.
There is no specific set date for the official opening of the Nambah Coffee store front, but they are hoping to be set and ready to go in about a month or so.
Vincent M. Franco can be reached at vincent.franco@laverne.edu.
Vincent Matthew Franco is a senior journalism major with a concentration in print and online journalism. He has been involved in journalism and print media in high school, community college and is now at the social media editor of the Campus Times and a staff photographer for the Campus Times and La Verne Magazine. He previously served as arts editor.
Nathan Driscoll, a sophomore criminology major and photography minor, is a staff photographer for the Campus Times.
