Interview with the Brew’s Cruise founder, David Andrade.
Q: How did Brew's Cruise start?
DA: I have always wanted to do a cars and coffee gathering. I have always liked the feel of it. It gives you a reason to wake up early in the morning, get your car out of the garage and go for a nice little ride, converse with friends and leave early enough to get going with your day. What I needed though was a community. My friends from Gardens & Seeds had started going to a coffee shop in Long Beach called Wolf's Brew, we soon befriended Bryer and Jai there, and it became the regular gathering place for us during Covid. With everyone locked in place, I could tell that everyone was starting to get a little bit of Cabin fever. I figured it was the perfect time to start the little cars and coffee that I always wanted to do. I would look at it as a place for coffee, cars, and most importantly community. I had a place I felt attached to where I could get it going now, and I felt the small community of friends and fellow car enthusiast in the area was enough people to gather together during those times. Well once things opened up the gathering just grew from there, and now new people are coming from all over to meet each other.
Q: How did the collab with G&S, Illest, and Wolf’s Brew, block party happen?
DA: Once the gathering started to pick up and things started to open up, I could see how big the presence of the community felt. It made me feel like I wanted something a little bigger than a short morning gathering. I thought about doing a evening event and figured summer time would be best since the days are longer. I even joked and would called it a midsummer nights dream when talking to the guys about it. The guys are G&S have some deep roots and they are good friends with the guys who are currently behind illest and through our normal hang outs the idea of a activation for Illest came about. All on a vibe, we were talking about working on something together and that's when the light bulb lit up. What about the mid summer night event I had been wanting to do, this would be the perfect opportunity, especially because the focus would be more on the community and getting together for the evening over all else. We talked about it and everyone agreed it would be a great idea. So now the idea I had been sitting on for almost a year had a reason to take place. It was a very busy evening but the feel of that event was exactly what I and we imagined. It worked out perfectly. The guys at illest even came up with a great design for a shirt to give out at the event. That we will be doing a preorder on July 15-18th through the “Community Garden” platform.
Q: What is next for Brew's Cruise?
DA: To be honest, I really like the idea of keeping things small. At times when there is a huge turn out it kind of changes the feel. I always wanted for this particular cars & coffee to be small. With that though, I think it is time to have a gathering at different locations. If the feeling can stay the same and the location can properly house the amount of people getting together there is nothing wrong with a bigger turn out. I have a love for the look and feel of shops in general, so I would like to have a Brew's cruise at some of the other shops I like. I travel a lot so there is a chance I can put something together in another state. There are a lot of ideas, just need to execute on the best way to go about it.
