This coffee shop has been in operation since 1992...and it offers some food items and also entertainment as well. Free wi-fi, comfy chairs, and outdoor seating in San Diego's trendy University Heights neighborhood.
The coffee house's website (
visit link) provides a history:
"Twiggs was opened in 1992 by composer and arranger Michael Roth and his wife, artist Jill Moon. In pre-opening days, Jill was driving through Old Town and saw a street sign for “Twiggs Street.” She thought the name was perfect for a coffee house, and so Twiggs Tea and Coffee was born.
After 5 years of running the business, Michael and Jill wanted to pursue other interests, so they sold the coffeehouse in 1997 to Dan Stringfield and Bernie Horan (that’s us!). We’ve owned it ever since.
For the first year, we purchased all our products from other bakeries. Dan, however, is a professionally trained pastry chef. After a year or so when we had enough money, we opened a commercial bakery spot about a half a block away from Twiggs. Soon thereafter, we opened a retail bakery outlet attached to the bakery.
For many years, our original location had a performance space which was near and dear to many in the local music scene. Our claim to fame is that Jason Mraz played our place many times before he became rich and famous — and actually played a few times after he became rich and famous. Alas, a live music venue on the ground floor and 18 apartments above it don’t mix. We had to end all live music performances in early 2007 in order to keep our lease.
The space is still utilized heavily, however. Over twenty 12-step groups meet there during the week and Twiggs has become an important place for many in recovery. We’re proud to be part of those lives.
In 2001, we built out a second coffeehouse / cafe location at the base of the El Cortez. At that time, we decided to close the retail bakery outlet since our original coffeehouse location was only a half a block away. We ran the El Cortez location for 5 years and then sold it to two of our customers there. They’ve since reinvented the place as a wonderful Italian bistro called Soleluna.
Over the years, we outgrew our commercial bakery spot as our wedding cake business grew and grew. We wanted to move to a new bakery space that had a storefront and cafe along with it. Not appreciating what a nightmare the city of San Diego makes permitting and inspection, we naively leapt into building out a new bakery spot along with a retail storefront / cafe on Adams Avenue at the western end of “Antique Row.” Our projected 5 month build-out turned into over 14 months, but we finally opened in October of 2008.
It was a very painful birth that went into the 7th trimester, but now we love it.
Our bakery mission is to be the best cake bakery in San Diego –cakes for weddings, birthdays, or any other celebration.
Our cafe / coffehouses’ mission is to provide fresh, delicious food in a cozy, neighborhood setting.
We long ago established ourselves in the original location as a community center for University Heights. Now we’re establishing ourselves as a community center for our new neighborhood on Antique Row.
We value our place as a community center in a world that’s increasingly disconnected from itself."