Electric vehicle maker Rivian dedicated its first Orange County showroom in downtown Laguna Beach’s historic movie theater on Friday, Dec. 8.
Rivian’s experience center at 162 S. Coast Highway in Laguna Beach, which officially opens Saturday, Dec. 9, is 15 miles from the electric automaker’s headquarters in Irvine. The historic theater, which opened as the new Lynn Theater in 1935, had closed its doors in 2015. When Rivian purchased the 11,000-plus-square foot space in 2021, the team began the restoration process with community outreach.
“We did lots of community leader outreach,” said Denise Cherry, Rivian’s senior director of facilities design and retail development. “We chatted with (Laguna College of Art and Design). We chatted with Laguna Art Museum, the historic society. Dozens and dozens over the years so we were doing right by what everyone wanted.
“The thing that we learned: it was very valuable partnering with the city early on and making sure that what we’re building is representative of the needs and wants of the community. We wanted to listen to what everyone needed and we knew this was a landmark and an icon for the city that we’re just lucky to be stewards of.”
Friday’s space dedication featured Laguna Beach mayor Bob Whalen, Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris and fifth district Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley. The ceremony included a land acknowledgement by Gabrielino-Tongva and a call for care by Samantha Johnson from the Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy.
Programming by Coast Film Foundation is part of the space’s draw, but for coffee aficionados, it’s the first Equator Coffees shop in Orange County.
“This is the first Rivian location to have a coffee shop,” said Equator Coffees co-founder Helen Russell, who started the brand with her partner Brooke McDonnell, noting that the cafe’s presence in the space was championed by Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe.
“It was RJ’s vision from the beginning,” she said. “He loves coffee. He loves our story. He knows how we buy. He knows that we’re a B-corp. He knows that we’re the first roaster to become Fair Trade-certified in California, back in 2011. We just became the first roaster to sign on with regenerative organic certification (ROC). Now a lot of other roasters are signing on as well. We were the first LGBTQ-certified company in the history of the SBA program to win business of the year in 2016. Mark Cuban carried Brooke around on the stage, which was kind of fun. So a lot of firsts.”
When Equator Coffees launched, according to Russell there were only five women roasting coffee. There were only 30 coffee roasters on the West Coast. Now there are more than 300. What set them apart was attention to detail.
“Brooke wanted to know about the potassium in the soil, the elevation, were the children that were on the farm going to school, and she said to me, ‘I really want to roast coffee.’ ”
They created the company name, “which is Equator because coffee and tea are grown on the equator.”
Another signature Equator Coffee motif is the bengal tiger logo.
“We created the bengal tiger as our icon because we’re women-owned, we buy a lot of coffee from Sumatra,” she said. “Also for her grace, rarity, and power. You see that tiger everywhere. When the kids come into the stores, I put stickers all over them. People will send me photos of when they’re behind a car with a sticker. Then about six years ago, I was watching the French Open and Serena (Williams) was playing. We went up to the family box and Alex, her husband, had on a ballcap with our red tiger on it!”
Top chefs such as Dominique Creen, the only female chef in America to achieve three Michelin stars, along with Thomas Keller, and Tyler Florence, created specialty blends with Equator Coffees. In January, Equator celebrates its 29th anniversary. But on this day, Russell is enjoying the Laguna Beach space and welcoming locals.
The 129-seat theater underwent a multiyear renovation. Working with Retail Design Collaborative, historic preservationists, architects, and the community, Rivian’s team restored the structure’s original exterior, marquee, ticket booth, balcony, the original owner’s second floor apartment, and more. The space now features a Rivian Gear Shop with merchandise such as Almond Surfboards, which collaborated with Rivian, displays of Rivian’s all-electric R1T pickup and R1S SUV, along with seating by Kooji, floor cushions and pillows by SUAY, and furnishings such as custom white oak and cherry millwork elements by Klein Agency.
“Rivian, as a company, we want to do things differently,” said Kjell Gruner, chief business officer and president, business growth. “So we’re here for our kids’ kids’ kids. We’re here for the really long term.”
Though the brand’s EVs sound high tech, Gruner asserts that Rivian is a direct-to-consumer business model.
“We show up here and we have conversations with the community,” he said. “We want to be a part of it.”
Russell credits Scaringe for envisioning this partnership. They met in 2019 when Scaringe approached Russell to host an event at her Mill Valley location, which is behind a surf shop. The event opened her eyes. Later a partnership flourished.
“It’s wonderful for us to partner with Rivian. It’s such an honor to be a part of it, because we’re all about the experience. For RJ to choose us, he never forgot the experience he had at Equator, at that surf shop. He was a customer passing by. He enjoyed the vibe. It was a place, he looked around and said, ‘This is an amazing community that will love my truck.’”
At the Laguna cafe menu items include traditional coffee, cold brew, along with a mushroom-based “brainwashed latte.” A new item for Equator Coffees is the breakfast sandwich with organic egg frittata on fresh sliced bread with avocado. Farmshop in Brentwood will provide the cafe’s pastry and bread.
“I only choose locations where I personally just want to be,” Russell said. “We’re also very much a part of the cycling community up in Northern California. So we’re going to do a Cervelo cycling event here in January. … We’ll probably have 20 to 30 riders. We’ll all start here and then we’ll go out and do a 45-mile ride, then we’ll come back in, and enjoy the experience center. This is all about community. I think Rivian and Equator really express that.”
