Bird Rock Coffee Roasters is a low-key coffee operation that Chuck Patton founded in 2002 in a sleepy neighborhood south of La Jolla Village. The business now runs five San Diego coffee bar locations throughout the surrounding county. Bird Rock most recently opened near the Del Mar marshes last month. This newest location is part of a boost from PT’s Coffee Roasting Company, the Kansas based coffee business from Jeff Taylor, his wife Maritza Suarez-Taylor, and Fred Polzin that purchased Bird Rock last spring. This new, modern coffee bar features a mural that promotes “relationship coffee” and is basically caffeinated catnip to passing cyclists. The cafe’s equipped with a three-group Slayer espresso machine, Mod Bar pourover, cold brew, and nitro. Bird Rock also serves some fun specialty beverages, one of which I’ve never seen before.

Chuck’s Root Beer ($5.75) honors Chuck Patton, who remains the coffee buyer for both Bird Rock and PT’s. He also apparently favors an unlikely coffee and root beer mash-up that somehow works in surprising ways. Bright, fresh-pulled Bird Rock espresso balances harmoniously with mineral rich tonic water and bittersweet house-made sarsaparilla syrup. My barista served the drink over ice in a branded Bird Rock surf van glass.