Longtime Land Park coffee shop Espresso Metro to close; a newcomer will take its spot

Espresso Metro has reached its last stop.

The 32-year-old coffee shop across from Sacramento City College will close for good when owner Joan Riordan retires Sunday. It’ll eventually be replaced by another cafe called 5 Sips owned by Michael Mansour, Espresso Metro’s former paper supplier.

Riordan decided to close Espresso Metro about nine months ago, she said, knowing the cafe’s lease would expire at the end of May. She recently became a grandmother and hopes to travel more whenever the coronavirus pandemic subsides.

The pandemic didn’t contribute to Espresso Metro’s closure, but it prevented what would have been a remarkable feat for any small business. Espresso Metro had been open every day since its founding on June 7, 1988 — 11,621 consecutive days — before the statewide shelter-in-place order. After closing for more than a month aside from bulk orders, the cafe reopened May 4 with a large plastic sheet between employees and customers.

“(Closing) was already in the works. I’m sad it ended up happening during the pandemic, though,” she said. “We’ve never ever been closed a day, then we closed for five weeks during the pandemic. Not one day. Some holidays we were there for just five hours, but we were open in the morning, serving coffee.”

Mansour had been interested in buying Espresso Metro for several years, but ended up only purchasing cafe equipment instead of the business due to its expiring lease, Riordan said. Some Espresso Metro employees will be offered jobs at 5 Sips.

“Really great coffee, nice people and kind of a funky atmosphere,” was how Riordan described her soon-to-close cafe at 2104 11th Ave. It’ll continue selling drinks as well as housemade baked goods, panini and pasta salads to-go from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Sunday.

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 12:54 PM.