K-Bay Caffe Opens Downtown Location

     K-Bay Caffe recently opened up a new location on Pioneer Avenue in Homer, which the management hopes will provide a new music and art venue for the community. 

     The popular cafe has served organic, specialty coffee to the community of Homer since the late 90's and is constantly seeking to improve its trade. 

     Recently, KBay moved its main base of operations to a new location in the middle of town on Pioneer Avenue, while still maintaining a drive-through service near its previous location. Owner Michael McGuire said that this was done so that neither the cafe or the drive-through will take any business away from the other, which was rather difficult with both of them in the same location.

     McGuire said that the location of the old coffee shop was a little too far out of the way for some Homer residents and that by moving to a centralized location, they are now able to serve members of the community much more efficiently and possibly even save them a buck or two on gas.

     In addition to granting Homer easier access to its coffee, the new KBay Caffe also will host musicans and art showings. Local musician and KBay co-manager Carressa Starshine stated that they hope to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for the community, emphasizing the desire for such a place to be available to the under-21 crowd. 

     "We hope to make it available ... as a place to come and gather with friends and family," she said. "We're going to be doing First Fridays and open mics with an emphasis on getting the youth of Homer involved."

     While the new location has been open for a couple weeks already, it will celebrate its official grand opening this Friday with coffee, food and a performance by Homer's own Reggae band "Uplift."

     While it's only been a short time since the new location opened, McGuire is very optimistic for the future of KBay and only sees this as the start of a new chapter in its service to the Homer community.

     To learn more about K-Bay Caffe, visit their website at kbaycoffee.com.