Zayde Naquib
Bar Nine | Los Angeles
June 2017
While Zayde Naquib worked post-production in the film and video industry, he found that he had a lot of free time to fill between projects. To make extra cash, Naquib picked up a job at a small café and was instantly hooked on hospitality and coffee. Learning how to operate a shop from the ground up, he spent the next three years at Plant Earth Eco Café in Hermosa Beach, followed by a position on the opening team of Two Guns Espresso. Finally, he was introduced to next-level specialty coffee at Espresso Cielo in Santa Monica.
Naquib saved his tips for six months to buy a sample roaster and spent all his free time roasting at home. As he got the hang of roasting, he wrote a business plan and found an investor in his next-door neighbor, Jereme Pitts. In 2014, Bar Nine Collective was born. Now a Culver City staple, Bar Nine’s roasting and extraction makes for a clean and sweet cup, with the majority of beans sourced from Ninety Plus Coffee. Naquib is also committed to sustainability: the shop is partially solar-powered and serves to-go orders in glass jars. With innovations like nitrogen-flushed, pre-ground, and packaged coffee, he and Bar Nine are changing the way we buy, brew, and enjoy coffee
