Captain + Stoker is back, with new ownership.

You might need a cup of coffee or two to keep up with the news of Captain + Stoker, the Monterey coffee shop that opened to much fanfare, then announced three months later it was for sale, then that the sale fell through and it was closing. 

That's the story, all up to date until today, Thursday July 19, when it reopened under new ownership. 

Tyler Ellis and Kelsea Richmond, an engaged couple who previously worked at Captain + Stoker, bought the place and reopened it with Ellis' brother, TJ Ellis. 

Ellis and Richmond arrived in California after an RV road trip with their dog and cat across the country from Charleston, South Carolina. He landed a job as a welder at a metal shop, and she as a receptionist at a dental office. Neither of them is much of a coffee person, but in Captain + Stoker they saw a passion project. 

The previous co-owner, Peterson Conway, was looking for a cycling enthusiast to join the team (the decorative theme is bicycles, and the name refers to tandem biking). Word got to Ellis, a cyclist. He says he met Conway, they connected, and he quit his job to go work for the soon-to-be coffee shop. 

"I said, 'I don't know anything about coffee or opening a business," Ellis recalls of his conversation with Conway. "He told me to quit my job the next day. I did."

By February, both Richmond and Ellis were working for Conway; the coffee shop opened in March in a coveted spot across the street from the Monterey Sports Center. Then, a few months later, it was for sale. 

After the planned sale to Santa Cruz-based Cat & Cloud fell through, the couple say Conway reached out to them, and agreed to a deal that was workable and gives them five years to pay. 

"We're not gillionaires," Ellis says. "We worked out a contract in our favor."

For now, the trio are the only employees. They're open seven days a week (6:30am-2pm Mon-Fri, 7:30am-3pm Sat-Sun) and serving some expanded pastry offerings from Parker-Lusseau.

Within a couple of weeks, they expect to bring back the popular avocado toast (yes, the design and the menu here are cut from iconic hipster cloth) and are still selling a CBD-infused drink called Vybes, in flavors like peach-ginger and strawberry-lavender. A decision on bringing back locally-made Katie's Coldpress juices has not yet been made. 

The name and overall vibe of the place will remain unchanged. The decorative bikes belong to the Conways, and will be returned to them; Richmond envisions more art and vintage goods as decoration. 

"Instead of just working for someone," Richmond says, "there was some passion that fired up in us."