Carolines Coffee Roasters is Grass Valley Downtown Association’s “Business of the Year”

We enjoyed the annual holiday party of the Grass Valley Downtown Association at 151 Union Square on Mill Street on Wednesday night. It was a good turnout, showing that the merchants are working together. In many ways downtown Grass Valley is “firing on all cylinders.”

The local restaurants donated some great-looking food, along with local wine and craft beer. We mostly visited with the merchants, because we later headed to Summer Thymes to sample their holiday hors d’oeuvres on Colfax Avenue (AKA “The Avenue”).  Amy and Chamba Cooke put on a show.

We were thrilled that Carolines Coffee won the “Business of the Year” honor at the GVDA mixer. GVDA Executive Director Julia Jordan cited Carolines’ generous coffee donations and top-notch local java.

We drink Carolines each morning, including a Jamaica blue blend on Christmas morning, and are big fans of this family run and owned business.  We regularly write about Carolines in our magazine too, such as their partnership with the “new and improved” NU Cafeteria in the current edition.

Carolines is an old-school coffee roaster. They roast five days a week, and the bulk of the roasting is done on a Diedrich IR24. In the world of coffee chains, we our proud of our local coffee houses — serving premium brews — and will be writing about them in our winter issue in January.

On Wednesday night, we visited with Trace Fike and his wife Holly and her sister, Becky Miller, and their children before the honor, so it was it wonderful surprise. Holly writes an informative blog. It is here.

We’re also big fans of the Fikes and Carolines because of their “love of family,” something that is important to us.

I recently was pumping gas at the Union 76 station in downtown Grass Valley after dropping our son off at school in the early morning when I noticed Holly walking her own children to school. We waived at each other, and off they went. It was a great small-town scene.

The GVDA also named Meghann Meadows as its Volunteer of the Year and staffers Libby Boissevain-Bonomolo and Kimala Breaux DeSena were honored with bouquets of flowers. It was great to visit with the DeSenas, who brought their children.