Our Story
Twelve years, three storefronts, and one very stubborn opinion about what coffee should taste like.
How It Started
The Farmers Market Cart (2014)
Mara Whitfield and Dev Okafor met while both working the closing shift at a café that, by their own admission, roasted its coffee stale on purpose to save money. In the spring of 2014 they pooled savings, bought a secondhand espresso cart, and set up every Saturday at the Brightwater Farmers Market with a folding sign that read simply: “Roasted this week. Ask us when.”
Neither of them had run a business before. Mara had spent four years pulling shots at three different cafés around Brightwater; Dev had a spreadsheet habit and a stack of notebooks from backpacking trips through Central America, where he’d started asking farmers questions nobody at his old job seemed to care about the answers to. The cart split those two skill sets by default: Mara ran service, Dev ran everything on paper.
The First Regulars
By June, the same dozen people were showing up before the cart had even finished setting up. Most of them worked at the boatyard two blocks over, which is part of why the Harbor café exists today — see ourHarbor location pagefor that story in full.
What They Ordered
Almost everyone ordered drip coffee, black. Nobody had asked for a flat white yet. That changed by August, once the cart got a secondhand steam wand that actually held pressure.
A Note on the Name
“Wanderlust” came from Dev’s notebook of farm visits — every trip got its own tab, and the notebook itself was labeled that on the cover long before there was a business to name.
Growing Into a Roastery
2016 — The First Storefront
The Downtown space on Millbrook Lane used to be a bicycle repair shop. The roaster still sits where the workbench used to be, visible from the sidewalk through the original shop window. Mara says the previous tenant’s bike grease smell took almost a full year of roasting to fully cover.
2018 — Three Locations
Riverside opened first, then Harbor a year later. Each café roasts nothing on-site anymore — everything is roasted at the Downtown facility and delivered fresh every morning — but each keeps its own personality. Compare them on thelocations page.
2019–2021 — Wholesale and Subscriptions
Once the roaster had spare capacity, other cafés started asking to buy from us directly instead of through a distributor. Thewholesale programlaunched in 2019 with two accounts; it’s eleven cafés and four offices now. Thesubscription servicefollowed in 2021, mostly because regulars kept asking if we’d just mail it to them instead.
What We Believe
- Every bag carries a roast date, not a “best by” guess.
- We visit every farm we buy from at least once a year — see oursourcing commitments.
- Wholesale partners get the same beans as our own cafés, not a “café-grade” downgrade.
- If you don’t like a bag, we’ll replace it. Details are on ourFAQ page.
The Team
- Mara Whitfield — Co-Founder & Head Roaster
- Runs every roast profile personally and still works the Saturday cupping sessions.
- Dev Okafor — Co-Founder & Sourcing Lead
- Travels to origin twice a year; writes most of the farm profiles on oursourcing page.
- Priya Nandakumar — Wholesale & Training Manager
- Runs onboarding for every newwholesale accountand teaches most of ourbrewing workshops.