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The pace of change over the last week has been staggering, sending shockwaves through communities nationwide, and at Black Oak, complicating our simple mission to make better coffee everyday.  We pride ourselves on being a welcoming place where the community can gather, whether for a daily moment of joy and uplift or a quick meeting. During catastrophic fires and power shut-offs Black Oak has even been able to provide a  small sense of normalcy and comfort to our community, by keeping our doors open to all. In the face of the coronavirus response, we are here - striving to support you.  

As of now, we are thankful to be open for takeout, curbside delivery, home delivery of bagged coffee, and for a friendly face (even at a 6’ distance). 

Our daily imperative as we continue to learn about the novel Coronavirus is to make the Black Oak environment as safe as possible.

To that end, we have taken several actions:

• Removing all seating from our cafe
• Adding hand-wash stations at all cafe entrances
• Ending own cup, condiment bar, and all other shared touch surfaces
• Adding constant cleaning and sanitizing of counters, touch screens, and work surfaces
• Launching curbside delivery via our mobile order system
• Exploring additional options for local delivery and assisting communities in need
• Implementing extensive policies and procedures aimed at protecting our staff, management, and community from coronavirus exposure

There is a need for a moment of frankness here. It is incredibly challenging to adjust business operations daily to accommodate new information, recommendations, and mandates.  As a result of social distancing, we are watching our usual steady customer flow reduce to a trickle, and the additional cleaning and sanitation measures make it more and more expensive to operate.  

We care deeply about our employees, about serving great coffee and food, and about providing comfort to our community in good times and bad.  Despite all that we are doing to provide a safe environment, we are full of anxiety about remaining open. If you would like to support us, or you just miss our coffee, here is how you can adapt with us:

1. Use our mobile ordering and curbside pickup to embrace a new way of enjoying our coffee
2. Order bagged and bulk coffee for delivery or curbside pickup via our website. We have several new options, including affordable bulk purchases
3. Invest in Black Oak’s future by purchasing a gift card online
4. Tip our baristas big, it’s more important than ever.

We are committed to emerging from this challenge better than ever, more resilient in our efforts to build community around coffee. We will continue to share the care and creativity of the coffee farmers, roasters, and baristas who make our delicious coffee possible. 

Most of all, we will continue to meet our community’s needs and we will get through this together!