Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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factory tour Retail Store and Espresso Bar… From day one, Peerless has had a retail storefront, George Jr. says. And while he doesn't know for a fact, he believes there is a good chance that the Peerless retail store could be the longest-running coffee bean shop on the West Coast. When the company moved from its original location, closer to downtown Oakland, to its current building, peers told Sonja Vukasin that she was crazy to open a coffee store out among the warehouses. "We sent postcards and coupons to our regulars," says Sonja of efforts to bring customers over, "and they loved the coffee so much they came. And we now have the children of those customers come in to buy their coffee." It isn't just locals who drive to the Oak Street address. Customers come in from all over the state to pick up a few pounds of coffee or buy a latte. The shop has a few other staples as well. "Since 1924, we've sold fresh-roasted Virginia jumbo peanuts," says George Jr. "We used to roast them in the coffee roasters, but we can't do that anymore because of allergen issues. But we still sell a few hundred pounds a week. Especially during baseball season." Oakland A's fans regularly drop in for a few pounds of peanuts, he says, before THE EARLY YEARS T he Peerless Coffee Company began in 1924 when Yugoslavian immigrant John Vukasin created a gourmet coffee roasting company featuring European-styled coffees, which he sold at his own storefront and to hotels, restaurants and at retail throughout the East Bay of San Francisco. Vukasin roasted and packed the coffee, while his wife, Natalie, handled the books and their children helped out. In the 1950s, Vukasin's son George joined the business—although he really wanted to be an FBI agent. "Dad had attended the University of California, Berkeley and majored in criminology. And, well, coffee wasn't a glamorous business then," explains George Vukasin Jr., who, along with his sister Kristina Brouhard, now runs the business. "But he was the dutiful son and said OK." Eventually George Sr.'s wife, Sonja, joined the business, and in the 1970s, after John Vukasin died, George and Sonja completely took over. "My dad would roast in the morning, grind and pack in the late morning, go deliver in the mid-afternoon to all the accounts and come back and spend the next few hours fixing equipment that we supplied to restaurants and cafes. Mom handled the books," says George Jr., acknowledging that the parents' business routine was similar to the grandparents. But one big difference in the business was that George Sr. eventually began traveling the world visiting coffee farms and building relationships. But at the beginning, George Sr. wasn't as confident in buying green coffee. Getting a Few Lucky Breaks "My grandfather was the master at green coffee," George Jr. notes. "So Dad went to a coffee importer he knew his dad respected and together they roasted and sampled it. Then my dad did something that no person in his right mind would ever do—he locked in two years of coffee. He decided he had enough other things to handle and wanted his coffee supply set." This turned out to be an incredibly fortunate decision as Brazil, the largest coffee producer in the world, suffered a black frost, which killed many of its coffee trees. Prices skyrocketed but, explains George Jr., "Mom and Dad were sitting on two years' worth of coffee at a lower cost. This helped the business tremendously." They also made a smart move in purchasing the land where the current retail store, business offices and production facility stand. Visiting a local police station, the couple examined a map of Oakland perforated with pins indicating locations of crimes. "They saw an area that didn't have any pins in it and said, 'We'll buy there,'" George Jr. 110 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com