In 2023, a resume arrived from Ian Logan, then the head roaster at Intelligentsia Coffee's Los Angeles roastery.  He was interested in joining Maru , but during our conversation, we learned something unexpected:  Intelligentsia was moving its roasting operations to Chicago, and its LA facility would soon become available.  

At the time, Maru was roasting coffee in a 300-square-foot room inside our Arts District cafe.  We had outgrown it quickly and had already spent more than a year searching for a larger home.  Suddenly, the kind of opportunity we had been waiting for appeared through a single interview.  

We moved quickly.  And looking back, we feel incredibly fortunate that the conversation also introduced us to Ian, who is now Maru's head roaster.  

For Maru Founder Jacob Park, taking over the space carried an even deeper meaning.  Nearly 20 years earlier, when he was a young barista, Jacob had visited Intelligentsia's LA roastery and imagined what it might be like to work in a place like it one day.  He remembers the 30-kilogram Gothot roaster, the tall racks of green coffee, the laboratory, and the sheer scale of the operation.  At the time, Intelligentsia was helping shape what specialty coffee could become, and the space left a lasting impression on him.  

Now this is our home.  

Two decades later, Maru found its new roasting home in that very same building.  What began as an unexpected resume became an opportunity and a full-circle moment we could never have planned.