A young woman approaches the orange counter of Espresso Roma Café, and before she can even say “coffee, please,” barista Junior Felix has picked up a ceramic mug, twirled it artfully in one hand and asked, “Medium, right?”
The woman nods her head.
The people of Roma know a lot about the community and the people they serve. But little is known about the people who serve us coffee except that they have good memorization skills and supreme skills at the espresso machine. So meet Junior Felix and Davyd Hamrick, two of Roma’s hardworking employees.
A few minutes later, Felix balances a massive box of Oregon Chai on his knee and as he pours it into a huge two-gallon jug, he says he is 23 and from Los Angeles. He puts the box of chai down and disappears through a doorway for a moment, returning with a gallon of milk. He starts pouring the milk into the jug now, but when asked how he ended up in Eugene, he stops pouring, looks around his shoulder and laughs.
“For me it was a big accident. Let me put this down and I’ll come sit and tell you,” he says, still laughing.
Turns out it truly was a complete accident the way Felix ended up here. After leaving his studies of photography at Los Angeles Harbor College because of financial problems, Felix was unhappy with his life. He talked to his friends about it one night and an impulsive decision became a happy accident.
“I was like, ‘Dude, I dropped out, there goes my life,’ and one of my friends said ‘Well stop complaining about it and do something with your life,’” Felix said.
So he picked up a dart, tossed it at a map, and got on a Greyhound bus headed north for Oregon the next day. He had no idea where in Oregon he was going to end up, but when the bus stopped in Eugene for a short break, a freak occurrence landed him where he is today.
“I was listening to a Sublime song and it mentioned Eugene, Ore., while I was in Eugene, Ore. So I got out of the bus, for the smoke break, went to the bar next door, got a little tipsy, the bus took off, and now I’m here,” he says.
Felix got his job at Roma soon after his arrival in Eugene because his cousin worked there and his family knew the owners. He had some experience with baking, but he was clueless when it came to coffee drinks.
“I didn’t know anything about coffee when I first started. I didn’t even drink coffee,” he says. “But now it’s pretty much pointless to work at a coffee shop and not drink coffee.”
Within the year and a half that he’s been in Eugene and working at Roma, Felix has learned the skills of every job in the café, including working the espresso machine, mixing dozens of different types of drinks, handling the cash register, cleaning and cooking.
And although he appreciates the simplicity of a basic coffee order, he does enjoy the occasional test of his barista skills.
“I like a good challenge. If they ask me to do something, I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it, no problem. You want coffee, chocolate and whipped cream in your cup? Yeah, I can do that for you,’” he says.
Hamrick’s journey to Eugene and Roma was more traditional. Originally from Dublin, Calif., he is a sophomore history major and has worked at Roma for about seven months. He fits in well there, as he’s extremely friendly and talkative. He’s easy to spot, standing behind the register, conversing and joking with the customers. Similarly to Felix, he got the job unexpectedly with hardly any prior experience. He hadn’t even heard of Roma before he saw the “Now Hiring” sign and walked in to speak to the manager.
“I was hired on the spot,” he remembers, adding, “I guess I’m lucky like that.”
Hamrick works a lot for a student — five to seven hours a day, five days a week — but says he is able to balance his time between work and school nicely. He played football in high school and had to handle long daily practices, and he attributes his ability to stay afloat to this. His primary duty is busing tables, but he often provides an extra hand when it gets really busy, and enjoys working at the register.
“I like the interaction, the variety of people and learning about how the different drinks are made,” he says, turning and pointing to Felix at the espresso machine.
He jokes that he wouldn’t want to subject anyone to his coffee concoctions yet, but he hopes to learn more and possibly start working as a barista at some point, too.
Roma is well known for the unique people who frequent it and Hamrick loves watching and talking to everyone. When asked about the more unusual people who come to the café, his eyes widen, his eyebrows go up and he smiles mischievously.
“It’s very entertaining. It’s really fun,” he says, reminiscing over one odd experience on the job. “A guy came in once, he was a little on the baked side, to be completely honest, and in the stereotypical stoner voice he says to us, ‘Dude … do you guys sell … like … ice cream here?’ I was doing everything in my power to avoid laughing because you can’t laugh at the customers, it’s bad business, but come on.”
Felix also enjoys meeting and observing the people at Roma, and has his own memory of an especially eccentric customer.
“There is a lady that comes in here and she yells. A lot. At the top of her lungs. If she likes you, she’s gonna like you but she’s still going to yell. If she doesn’t like you, she’s going to yell and give you the finger or cuss you out. But the thing about this woman is that she comes in and pulls out a 20 as a tip. And the more she yells, another 20, another 20. So it’s good and bad because she does insult us a lot,” Felix says.
Despite the fact that it’s work — and hard work at that, especially during the busiest hours — Felix and Hamrick both love working at Roma, primarily for the opportunity to socialize with and watch all the people that come and go each day. And that’s a lot of unique people, Hamrick points out.
“Frankly, if I were to give you a list of all the different characters that I’ve encountered we would be here until next week,” he says.
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