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Mammoth Lakes, CA - Looney Bean CoffeeshopPage 1 | Page 2 Just over 400 miles north of San Diego, nestled high in the Eastern Sierra Nevadas, 8,000 feet above sea level, lies the booming town of Mammoth Lakes, California. Mammoth is a self-proclaimed four-season resort town, and the secret is out. Wealthy retirees and second-home owners are quickly relocating to the aesthetic beauty and serenity of Mammoth, transforming what was once a close-knit community of ski bums and rock climbers into a bourgeoning, upper class tourist town.
But it hasn't happened yet, not complelety. About halfway down Main Street, before Highway 203 resumes its meandering climb to 9,000 feet, and descends to Devil's Postpile National Monument, right in the heart of Mammoth Lakes, is a coffeehouse that is actively preserving the community's local culture. If you are within one hundred yards of the Looney Bean on a cool summer evening, when the wind is right, you can smell the pungent odor of roasting coffee emanating from the smoke stack and wafting across the Sierra Nevada sky. At first it turns you off, but at daybreak, when the Eastern sky comes alive and people steadily wander into the Looney Bean for their morning cup of Joe like church-goers on Sunday, aversion turns to curiosity as you stroll inside to see what the big deal is. This is where fishermen gather before heading out to the lakes. This is where rock climbers find a partner for the day. This is where local artists showcase and sell their works. This is where local culture bubbles up to the surface of a tourist town. As Mammoth Lakes artist Laurel Stanford says, "It was the first open-minded place for young people that wasn't a bar. Once, a school got together and painted the cement floor, so there was a yellow-brick road leading in and around the counter. It was neat. People were into it." A Roaster's ResponsibilitiesBrent Kennedy, who, along with his wife, Bonnie, owns the Looney Bean, is careful to roast his coffee beans only on breezy nights. Once, a while back, Brent rolled the dice and roasted on a calm evening. Pungent black smoke poured out of the Looney Bean smokestack and formed a cloud that gently wafted across the night sky and stalled above the house of a man who was new to town. The smell of roasting coffee is not pleasant. It's not like the arousing aroma of freshly-brewed coffee; if coffee beans are popcorn kernels, the odor is like burnt popcorn. The man angrily called the Looney Bean, complaining that he had been startled. He thought his house was burning down. Brent apologized and made a mental note to be more careful. That was the only complaint the Looney Bean has received about roasting since 1992, when then-owners, Joe and Chris Walker, started roasting coffee beans. If someone were to complain today, well, they'd just have to get used to it. Pumping a non-toxic, offensive smell into the air is simply one of the inevitabilities of being the only coffee shop in Mammoth to roast its own beans. For Brent, roasting is necessary to fulfill his goal of wholesaling his coffee to businesses in Mammoth Lakes, in California, in the United States, in the rest of the world. It's happening already. "We get more mail orders every day," he says. "We have our email address and phone number on our cups and mugs, and people use those to get in touch with us. We sell the freshest coffee in town, and we're not at the mercy of some other roaster, possibly getting a lower quality bean." The Looney Bean is doing well as a business. At one time Brent had wanted to open a Looney Bean in every ski town in California, but he has since decided to keep it more simple. "I really like roasting," he says, "I like the coffee end of it. It's quite a task to manage a large number of people. I don't want to franchise. I like it like this. I'm as busy as I want to be. I would like to wholesale more, though. I'd like to get more restaurants in town carrying my coffee." A Microcosm of the Mammoth Lakes CommunityBrent Kennedy is sitting across from me outside the Looney Bean on the new deck he just had built a couple weeks ago. We're talking about why the Looney Bean is such a hot spot for locals. An older couple nearby overhears our conversation and joins in. The lady of the pair, who looks to be in her sixties, turns around and faces us. "We're just summer people, but whenever we come into town this is the first place we stop," she says. "We haven't even checked into our hotel yet." Whether it's the morning or the afternoon, many tables inside and outside the Looney Bean are occupied. During the summer, it's the climber's hangout. It's not uncommon for a climber who doesn't have a partner for the day to stop by the Looney Bean in the morning and find someone to climb with right away. Brent is not drinking coffee, but treats me to a frozen mocha, one of the Looney Bean's specialty frozen drinks that seems to spring from some kind of secret recipe. He has blonde hair that spills over the top of his blue Looney Bean visor and a very easy-going, laid-back demeanor, indicative of a long-time local of Mammoth Lakes and recent father who is completely satisfied with his life. He wears what seems like a permanent smile as people going in and out of his shop pass by and say hello. The Looney Bean could be a microcosm of the local flavor of Mammoth Lakes. Beneath the surface of this resort town is a tight community of locals here united by their love of the mountains and the outdoors. By hooking up the locals, the Looney Bean helps to preserve the integrity of this community. In Philadelphia, a city famous for its cheesesteaks, a tourist who wants to get a feel for the town could straight-line it directly to the closest downtown cheesesteak joint. In Mammoth, a tourist could visit the Looney Bean. Page 1 | Page 2 |
