Coffeehouse catapults caffeine into computer age

Coffeehouse catapults caffeine into computer age

Rise and Shine Coffee

‘People spend so much time alone in front of a computer now. They talk to their computer. They don’t even need their mouths anymore, all they need are their fingers.’

— Trevis Rucci

By Gregory Koteles

Acorn Staff Writer

Combine Bill Gates, founder and CEO of Microsoft, and Howard Schultz, the mind behind Starbucks, and you might get someone like Trevis Rucci.

Until two years ago, the 28-year-old entrepreneur was tending bars and running night clubs, catering to the night set. But through scrimping and saving, and fueled by a determination to realize his dream, Rucci shifted his focus 180 degrees and opened the Rise & Shine Coffee House on Las Virgenes Road in Calabasas. Now, the ex-bartender serves up coffee and bagels instead of Captain and Jack, and wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to go to work instead of getting home at that hour.

"I had done nightclubs and bars and created something for the evening," he said. "Now I wanted to create something for the morning." From the frenzied world of nightlife, Rucci awakened to the restless world of small business ownership. But despite the hardships faced by all startups, he’d found his niche.

"It’s not a job," he said of his work. "I get up in the morning and come in, and it’s not because I get a million bucks. It’s because I like the atmosphere and the people who come here."

Recently though, Rucci decided it was time to bring his business into the 21st Century, and inspired by the cyber cafés of Europe and Asia, he placed half a dozen PCs in his cozy coffee bar and linked them up to the world via high-speed DSL. For 10 cents a minute, people can break the shackles chaining them to their home computers and be among people, while sipping coffee or a fruit smoothie, and still be linked up to the World Wide Web or work on a term paper.

"People spend so much time alone in front of a computer now," said Rucci. "They talk to their computer. They don’t even need their mouths anymore, all they need are their fingers."

Though computer literate, Rucci brought in partner Seth Peeters to help bring his cyberspace dreams and Pentium wishes to fruition. The computers at Rise & Shine are custom built by Peeters and Rucci, and come fully loaded with the software suites PC users have come to expect and they’re linked to color printers.

But you needn’t be a cyber-junkie nor a coffee connoisseur to feel at home in Rucci’s little storefront. You just need a smile and a little time to relax, chat and enjoy the casual ambience the coffee house has to offer.

Rise & Shine is at 5659 N. Las Virgenes Road (north of the 101 Freeway at the intersection of Las Virgenes Road and Thousand Oaks Boulevard) in Calabasas. It’s open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.