Fuel up at Coffee Dock

Folks heading to the Oak Harbor Post Office may have noticed some changes to the small, unused espresso shack located across the street.

Gone is the green and yellow facade, replaced with a brown, ocean-themed facade. And its new owners are determined to help energize the coffee-crazed population.

The Coffee Dock opened about a week ago working out of the stand in the parking lot located at the corner of Barrington Drive and City Beach Street. In addition to the traditional array of coffee products, the stand also offers such items as biscuits and gravy. Coffee is provided by Seattle-based Caffe Vita, which roasts the Dock’s coffee to order.

The small coffee stand is owned by Oak Harbor residents Jason and Ada Ayer and managed by Ada’s sister, Kat Reed.

“Jason and I dove into it head first,” Ada Ayer said.

Even though they recently opened, the Ayers have owned the espresso stand for two months. It took them that long to get it ready for business.

“It was basically your backyard shed,” Jason said.

“We pretty much replaced everything. We bought a shell,” Ada added.

They installed new equipment, painted the inside and outside and laid a new floor in the months leading up to the transformation from the former and short-lived City Beach Espresso to The Coffee Dock. The “dock” in front of it sports a variety of sea memorabilia including a life preserver and floats.

The small building does have electricity. For water, the operators fill five-gallon kegs, which are attached to a filtration system that improves the water for coffee. The runoff water is stored in a 70-gallon tank, located underneath the dock, until disposal time.

When they opened, the Ayers headed over to the Post Office to offer sample cards to staff to drum up some business.

The Coffee Dock isn’t the Ayers’ only job. Ada owns a preschool while Jason works as a machinist. Kat has spent the past nine years working as a barista for various coffee shops in Oak Harbor.

When not busy working their jobs, the Ayers are busy raising their kids. They have two of them — Zack is 14 and Kylene is 12. Kat has one son, Nathaniel, who is 11.

The Coffee Dock is open from 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday and it is closed on Sunday.