Despite rough seas, pirate-themed coffee roaster to launch in Oak Park Saturday
Black Sails Coffee, a pirate-themed coffee roaster, will finally drop anchor at its permanent location in the former Naked Coffee & Roastery space at 3527 Broadway — and they already have an eye on expansion.
The opening was announced on its social media last week.
As The Bee reported in February, co-owner Sean McCullough landed the lease on the space earlier this year thanks to his former employer at Naked Coffee pulling back from the business. McCullough intended to have a grand opening on Feb. 14.
“We had the idea of Valentine’s Day, and the health department had a whole ‘nother plan,” he said.
Black Sails’ journey from indie roaster to pop up to brick-and-mortar has been nothing less than turbulent, involving multiple frustrated attempts and a personal tragedy.
Those same obstacles and challenges helped to inform his next moves in opening Black Sails. This time, he knew how to get ahead of the problems.
McCullough has been in coffee for 20 years, and worked at Naked Coffee a little more than a decade ago. He began by learning the back end of the business, including sourcing, supplies and delivery, but soon took an interest in roasting.
He went on to become head roaster and green coffee buyer for a company up in Rocklin called Vaneli’s Handcrafted Coffee. Green coffee indicates coffee beans in their unroasted state.
Through Vaneli’s, McCullough began submitting roasts to the international competitions, winning multiple silver and bronze medals.
The wins emboldened him to start roasting on his own, starting Black Sails as a cottage business. He used a small Behmor home roaster, a small countertop appliance that “looks like a toaster oven,” McCullough said.
He continued to submit his roasts to competition, netting more wins and ultimately catching the eye of pro skater Tony Hawk, who hawked Black Sails on his social media.
McCullough, with his business partner and best friend, Anthony Pulido, leased a raw space in Gold River in 2021, with the intent to convert it into a full-service cafe. Logistically, this proved unexpectedly difficult.
After going through layer after layer of red tape over the course of several months, paying utilities and rent while unable to drive revenue, they abandoned that plan. They fell back on e-commerce and pop-ups.
Last year, they were presented with an opportunity to rent a space in the Marketplace at Birdcage shopping center in Citrus Heights. While not as big a lift as the previous space, it still took seven months to get through the necessary permitting.
Then, tragedy struck. McCullough’s house burned, destroying his home and home-based roastery. Still, he bounced back.
This time, though, they took a different approach. Instead of trying to fit out an entire facility, they relied on Compact Mobile Food Operations (CMFO) legislation to permit only a push-cart containing all the coffee equipment.
CMFO rules became effective in 2023 after Governor Newsome signed SB 972. The bill is intended to allow some sidewalk food vendors to obtain public health permits.
Black Sails opened in the Birdcage, but the lease was only for a year — and seven months had already passed. Before the end of the year, the landlords informed the business that they would not be renewing.
McCullough had been consulting with Naked Coffee, his former employer, for about two years. When the owner had family commitments that pulled his attention from the business, he offered the space to Black Sails.
Unlike the previous two projects, the Naked space came fully equipped and ready to occupy. Initially, McCullough thought opening with the CMFO cart would be a slam dunk.
“I learned my lesson with my first warehouse, how much easier it is if a place has already been what you’re trying to do. You can fly through the permitting process if it’s already been a food facility,” McCullough said.
Despite coffee operations being contained to a fully permitted cart, red tape still bogged down Black Sails’ launch. They finally cleared final inspections and are preparing for Saturday, April 11’s 9 a.m. opening.
“I’m nervous to see what the weather brings but with coffee, it either keeps people at home or it drives them in. It’s either the slowest day of the year or the busiest,” McCullough said.
Black Sails will be serving espresso and specialty coffee drinks, as well as pastries from Ettore’s Bakery & Restaurant in Arden Arcade.
Black Sails has already stated that it intends to return to its roots, opening its second location at Biker Bar, a bicycle shop in Fair Oaks.
“They’ve been trying to make it a cafe for years, and they just ran into the same hurdles. So they reached out to us, and they loved what we did in Citrus Heights, and just wanted us to basically do the same thing there,” McCullough said.
Opening the second location will involve building a new cart and procuring new equipment, followed by the usual permitting challenges. McCullough hopes to open by June.
