Rick Molinari was taught the craft of coffee making by friend and master roaster, John Weaver.

On a midday stroll through his new home in Bend in 2019, Rick Molinari walked into a local coffee shop and ordered a macchiato. Upon receiving his drink, he saw that it wasn’t what he expected.

Confused, Molinari explained to the server that he was expecting a traditional macchiato — no milk, but rather, a nice layer of micro foam. He recalls the server telling him that “if you don’t like it, open your own coffee spot.”

Years later, that’s exactly Molinari has done.

Named M Caffe and located at 235 SW 6th in downtown Redmond, Molinari plans to bring roasted coffee beans and pastries up from Napa Valley, Calif., to Redmond every couple months. He also plans to offer in-house made cookies, raw bars, peanut butter and jelly muffins, scones and more.

M Caffe plans to open officially on Tuesday, Aug. 1 but Molinari says to check their website in case they decide to open a day earlier.

Its expected hours are Mondays from 5:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Tuesdays through Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., closed on Sundays. He anticipates the be able to extend hours once he gets things up and running and additional staff are added.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “It’s gonna grow. Everything takes time.”

Born in San Francisco and raised in Napa, Molinari made the switch from climbing telephone poles as a lineman to owning his own cafe in 2009. With the help of master roaster John Weaver (who was trained under Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee) Molinari opened up his own cafe in Napa, Calif., called Molinari Caffe.

In 2009, Napa wasn’t a ritzy town known for its restaurants and cuisine. Molinari said the city back then was filled with just “small little mom and pop shops.”

He said after he got settled, business started booming across town.

“I kind of started the revolution in 2009,” Molinari said.

A major earthquake hit the city in 2014, damaging the Molinari Caffe building and the fast-growing economic community.

“I was the only business that was open after that earthquake,” Molinari said. “Wow, I struggled. I lost a lot of money, personal money trying to keep it open, insurance companies wouldn’t help me. But I relied on the community and it was pretty strong.”

His perseverance paid off. Three years after the earthquake, Molinari and Weaver’s creation of wine-infused coffee gained a lot of popularity and media coverage including in Time Magazine, Forbes and Cosmopolitan.

In 2019, Molinari decided that after 10 years of running Molinari Caffe, it was time to move on. His in-laws in Central Oregon needed medical assistance, so he sold the business and started his own consulting firm. After his in-laws died, he and his wife moved from Bend to Redmond to keep connected to “the whole small town feel.”

But Molinari found himself missing his own shop — and macchiatos just how he likes them. When a friend told him that a spot in downtown Redmond had opened up, he took a chance and went for it.

“I miss the community feel, the customer feel,” he said. “I want to bring a new style of coffee and possibly a new style of pastries here, not just the norm. I want to turn this kind of place into a place where people can actually work and hang out at the same time.”