Aqus Café at Foundry Wharf Builds Unique Brand as Multi-generational Hot Spot of Southern Sonoma County’s Vibrant Cultural Scene

The bustling scene on a regular weekday morning at Aqus Café at Foundry Wharf might appear to the first time visitor as one not unlike any other popular West Coast coffee shop. Customers at almost every table are immersed in the content of open laptops, their headphones enabling these growing ranks of independent workers to share a slice of real time with conversational groups of community-minded seniors, gaggles of lively teens, technicians, mechanics, hair stylists on break and mid-day meetings of moms with toddlers in tow. Yet if you sit awhile with your bowl of organic soy latte, steaming mug of exotic herbal tea, it won’t take you long to absorb the extraordinary atmosphere that makes Aqus Café the region’s most talked-about hot spot of modern social capital. It’s a place where old and young, entrepreneurs and retirees, artists, musicians and chief instigators of dense community circles intermingle in a steady and returning stream from dawn ‘til after dusk for regular solid connections above and beyond the chatter of today’s social media networks.

Traditional conversation aside, a deeply held ambition of the Aqus concept partners was to bring the community together in a comfortable, welcoming, art-filled space for the mutual benefit of developing a social environment that fosters both a sense of belonging and a cumulative flowering of community spirit.

MEET THE OWNERS

Lesley McCullaugh:

Don’t think for a minute that this English born and bred empress of Aqus Café’s busy counter isn’t in complete control of operations and management during weekday hustle and bustle of Petaluma’s most popular coffee house. Lesley’s illustrious career in fine dining and restaurant expertise dates back to her well-spent teens at the four-star Midland Hotel, Manchester. It is this Lancashire’s lass’s impeccable attention to detail that sets Aqus Café apart from competitors in consistent quality, order and efficiency. Lesley’s your point person for most all enquiries into Aqus Café operational business affairs.

Michael McCullaugh:

Not only is fellow Irish-American, Michael, Mr. Fix-It and Chief Problem Solver at Aqus, anyone doing business with the Café will know him as Chief Negotiator. Michael brings an illustrious lifetime career in the restaurant and bar industry to the artfully streamlined operations of busy Aqus Café. A self-confessed fountain of youth, Michael is often to be found socializing in the cafe after a 20-mile loop of the West Country by road bike.

John Crowley:

If Irish eyes are smiling, as in the 1912 classic ‘The Isle O’Dreams’, John certainly is the green-eyed boy to recreate innate social ambitions derived from his grandfather’s pub in Dublin. “I set out to create a nice place for people to hang out,” says John, whose authentic vision for a multi-generational utopian bonding space in which he could happily hang out at with like-minded friends and neighbors in Petaluma, birthed the evolution of the Aqus concept.

Diane Gentile:

As a co-founder in Aqus Community, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, Diane spends the majority of her time building community both in and beyond the cafe walls.

Take a look at some historical photographs of  what the café space used to be.