Corner Light started in a narrow room on the corner of Alder and Vine that used to be a shoe repair.
We kept the tin ceiling and the long front window, added a counter and a handful of tables, and started pulling shots for the few regulars who wandered in before work. The name came from that window — the way the morning sun lands on the corner and fills the whole room by half past seven.
The espresso comes off a 1998 La Marzocco Linea we found at a restaurant auction two towns over. It took a month to bring back: new gaskets, a rebuilt group head, a paint touch-up we did badly and then decided to leave alone. It hums a little when it's warming up. We've grown to like that it hums.
Everything in the case is baked by Theo, who arrives while it's still dark and has strong opinions about laminated dough and almost nothing else. He came to us from a bread bakery and never left. If the cardamom knots are gone by mid-morning, that's Theo's doing — and ours, for not making him bake more.
— Mara & Theo Owners, Corner Light