By Joshua Molina, Noozhawk Staff Writer | @JECMolina

| June 20, 2019 | 8:10 p.m.

Business partners Ryan Patronyk, left, and Troy Yamasaki are excited about their new concept for Haley Street, Cajé Coffee by day and Lab Social bar by night. (Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo)

Santa Barbara's Haley Street has a new coffee shop, but you better bring your own cup. 

Cajé Coffee, 416 E. Haley Street, presents a third wave coffee shop. The first wave sold traditional brew coffee, then came specialty mass coffee such as Starbucks. Now, Cajé offers craft coffee, where there's a focus on quality and environmental sustainability. 

“It's an original concept,” said the shop's CEO and general manager, Troy Yamasaki. “We're trying to introduce something new. We understand it can be inconvenient, but we are trying to establish a new model.”

The shop, owned and operated by Ryan Patronyk, Yamasaki and Sean Sepulveda, is a coffee shop by day and bar by night. Cajé doesn't offer to-go plastic cups. Instead, it's a bring-your-own-cup model. Customers can also buy a re-usable cup on-site for $5. The money will be refunded when they return to the store. 

The menu offers non-alcoholic coffee “cocktails” with signature drinks including the Burnout, a latte with bourbon pecan syrup, activated charcoal, ginger salt, candied ginger and blackberry. Another one is the Twist, with double-strength cold brew, lemonade, coconut milk foam, and a raspberry ice cube. Maillard’s Folly is an iced latte with macadamia milk, coconut milk and roasted pineapple syrup, among others.

All of Cajé’s coffee is roasted in-house at the original Isla Vista location, which opened in 2004. Cajé’s menu also offers light bites, like avocado toast and ceviches.

In the evening, Cajé transforms into a Prohibition-era themed speakeasy bar called Lab Social. The Haley Street entrance is closed and guests instead enter through an incognito side entrance.

Inside, Cajé features bold tile patterns juxtaposed with natural elements like exposed ceiling beams, rustic wood tabletops, and green plants and vines winding above the bar. 

“We're trying to offer people an experiment that is not your traditional coffee shop,” Yamasaki said. “Our passion and desire is to create an other-worldly experience.”

The new shop is part of a rapid change on Haley Street, which is seeing entrepreneurs move in and renovate spaces, offering services that cater to young professionals and millennials. The street has also been targeted for rental apartment housing development. 

Yamasaki said people who drank the coffee as students in Isla Vista can now enjoy the coffee drinks as young professionals in Santa Barbara. 

Cajé, by the way, stands for coffee, art, juice and entertainment.