Handlebar grinding to meet caffeine and other essential needs

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The owner and staff at a popular coffee cafe are grinding away to help locals struggling to find basic supplies during the statewide stay-at-home order.

Handlebar on De La Vina Street is now stocked up on a number of dry goods, while they last.

"It all stemmed from just trying to help the whole chain of vendors or whole chain of events," said Aaron Olson, Handlebar owner. "A lot of the restaurant supply businesses that are doing a lot less business are looking to sell all kinds of product that our regular guests and employees can't find."

Customers can order a Handlebar espresso or chai tea latte and baked goods to go along with a box of pasta, an essential roll of toilet paper, paper towels, protective gloves, a two-year supply of garbanzo beans and a year's supply of flour -- depending how often you bake -- among other items.

"I think it's really cool since you can't find it anywhere else," said Amanda Jackson. "I know me and my brother actually went to the grocery store to look for some toilet paper and weren't able to find any, so it's cool they have some."

The majority of the inventory is coming from local restaurants and businesses that shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can pretty much guess the top seller.

"Probably toilet paper, to be fair," Olson said with a little laugh. "But we sell lots of flour. Flour and yeast are the two most things because everybody's baking quite a bit more at home, texting their friends and selling 50 loaves of bread to their friends."

Industrial sized cans of tomato sauce sit stacked across from large boxes of baking soda and baking powder in areas where customers used to sit and sip, less than two weeks ago.

"It's been pretty cool to watch everyone get fired up about baking at home and trying different things so, those seem to be in short supply," Olson said. "I'm sure someone has a thousand pounds [of flour] in their garage somewhere, stored."

A sign posted on one of Handlebar's glass doors thanks customers for their support, despite the shop's limited hours of 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

And no seating inside or out -- just grab and go service.