By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews
YACHATS — A new place to get a premium caffeine buzz has quietly opened inside Ona Restaurant in downtown Yachats.
Dream Machine Coffee is now offering high-end espresso-based beverages and single origin pour-over coffees. In addition, there are beverages for non-coffee drinkers, along with snacks, all in a colorful space that used to be the north dining room of Ona. The husband-and-wife team of Matthew Croka and Tara Stichter of Yachats are the owner-operators, focusing on the art of flavor extraction to create their brews.
The couple worked as servers at Ona for 13 years, and are leasing the space from restaurant owner Michelle Korgan. A self-described “aspiring coffee nerd,” Croka is no stranger to specialty coffee — he competed in the Northwest Regional Barista Competition in Portland 15 years ago.
“I have a lot of faith in our ability to produce quality,” said Croka, discussing the fact that Dream Machine is the fifth coffee stop to serve Yachats. The other four are Green Salmon, Village Bean, Beach Street Kitchen and Bread & Roses. The new shop had an informal opening Nov. 11, the couple’s wedding anniversary, and plan a formal open sometime after the new year.
“The coast is getting so popular, and the clientele is more sophisticated,” said Croka. “Coffee is one of the last things to catch up.” From his time in Portland, Croka says that “coffee nerds” there regard the coast as a “coffee desert; we want to help change that.”
Acknowledging that the winter season may be a bit slow, the duo is glad to be operating well in advance of the summer, when “there’s so much demand,” said Croka.
Thanks to their years of living and working in Yachats, the couple already knows many people in town, offer an 11 percent discount to locals, and have been happily surprised by the response.
“Everyone has been overwhelmingly supportive; we just want to bring really good coffee to the community,” said Stichter.
Currently open Thursdays through Mondays, the couple hopes to expand Dream Machine to a seven-day-a-week business in the summer.
Plans are to expand their to-go options to deli sandwiches and ice cream in the future. At present, in addition to coffees and teas of various types, customers can select from smoothies, meat-and-cheese puff pastries, egg bites and desserts.
And the name Dream Machine?
It’s rooted in the 1950s, when an avant-garde artist named Brion Gysin devised a stroboscopic, flickering light machine said to induce a dreamlike state. “We wanted to evoke a connection with that psychedelia culture,” said Croka.
- Dream Machine Coffee” Open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursdays through Mondays. Phone 458-546-9081; email dreammachinecoffee@protonmail.com.
Sorry, the city’s food and beverage tax has pushed people away. We now boycott Yachats.
Your comment reminds me of that old Yogi Berra statement, “That place is so busy, no one goes there anymore.”
If the Yachats food and beverage tax is pushing people away, Don, why is the town growing so quickly, why are there lines at every restaurant all summer long, and why can’t people find a place to park in town anymore?
Happy to see new places opening to serve all our visitors and residents. Good on ‘em!
How exciting. We are very limited with coffee houses. And deli sandwiches sounds wonderful.
This is great! I will be sure to stop next time I’m in Yachats.