On January 1, 2009, Dawn officially opened Hollow Café on Irving Street in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset District. She began the New Year in this sliver of a garden like space serving Ritual coffee and confections.

However, as any business owner attests, opening your own business has a unique journey of its own. One winter afternoon in 2008, Dawn was walking her dog and she saw that the 500 square foot storefront was for rent. She always wanted to have a store, but the Café idea came a little later. She negotiated, met with the landlord and things just seemed to fall into place. Dawn took over the lease in April, got married in May and began the challenging renovation and a unique education concerning guidelines, building codes, permits and coffee.

Dawn has a background in Art History and Interior Design and beauty is evident when you enter this garden setting and listen to the soothing droplets that flow from an antique fountain, observe a mask from Mexico, a bronze hanging monkey, carefully wrapped handmade goat milk soaps and the rich aroma of Ritual coffee wafts thru this intimate tranquil setting. The floor is concrete and she stenciled the design.

“I wanted it to be an elongated diamond.”

Closet door were made from redwood fences. The track lighting exudes a shadowy ambience.

“I like things to be based in nature. I have a funky aesthetic.”

Custom made mirrors hang on the wall. Design and art come together.

“I wanted to bring some light from the outside.”

Prior to Hollow Café, this space had been a beauty shop. Water ran thru hoses in the walls. The transformation took time, patience and a great deal of labor.

“It was nerve wracking.”

There was a definite maze of bureaucracy. Building codes had changed in the twenty five years the previous owner occupied the space. The electrical and plumbing had to be completely re-done.

“It was way more work than what it looked like it was going to be.”

Dawn completed the drawings, contractors began re-construction and Dawn researched coffee.

Mr. Coffee was her first inquiry and it didn’t seem like the right fit. Ritual Coffee Roasters on Valencia Street was her next stop and would be her final.

“I hit it off with them on a personal level. They are really passionate about what they do. They roast here. They use small farmers and they trained me.”

The single origin beans, the passion, and training to perfect the art of making an excellent cup of coffee won her over.

“It was always interesting to me that one cup of coffee can be really, really good and one can be really bad and why?”

“I learned how to make good cup of coffee.”

She explains the process.

“It’s about freshness, the most purified water, a really good machine, grinding beans for each shot, and high quality milk.”

Hollow Café choice of milk is Clover, a family owned dairy farm in Sonoma County.

“The beans are never more than a week old. We measure each shot so that it’s consistent and we put the same body pressure on the machine.

As a little girl in Santa Maria she didn’t know she’d have a cozy café in San Francisco, but a walk down a street one day can change your direction.

Her response from the neighborhood has been enthusiastic and welcoming.

“I just want to make people happy.”

NEXT WEEK: MEET PETER LOU, DESIGNER, OWNER, ORANGE CATERPILLAR BOUTIQUE.