The entire day of Jan. 7 felt eerie, Alan Janoyan said.
The co-founder and roaster of Unincorporated Coffee Roasters said he went into work at the business’ Altadena location, like any other day. But Janoyan said the conditions were anything but normal — it felt like a wind tunnel outside.
“Our furniture was flying away,” Janoyan said. “The wind had already blown the walls of our shopping center down into our neighbors’ yards before the fire was even here, and they’re like 10 foot cinder block walls.”
At 6 p.m., Janoyan said he went to take out the trash and that when he stepped outside, he could see the Eaton Fire across town.
At 4 a.m. the next day, Janoyan said he tried to drive back to Unincorporated, but the area had been evacuated.
Janoyan said he owns Unincorporated with his co-founder Arthur Sohrabian. He and his team received two or three false reports that Unincorporated burned down, according to Janoyan.
“It was very nerve-wracking because you can’t get in to check on it. It’s also too dangerous even if you can get in, but we kept getting reports all of Wednesday that the place had burned out,” Janoyan said. “It was weird to wrestle all that information, but then we found out it’s here, so thank goodness.”
2,700 miles away from LA, Lauren Hank, the operations manager for Unincorporated, said she woke up the morning of Jan. 8 to about 50 text messages. Working remote from Philadelphia, Hank said that for the next two weeks, it felt like she did not stop moving — she sent out aid and housing resources to employees, adjusted Eagle Rock’s business hours and made all shifts volunteer-based.
“Because I wasn’t there, that distance kind of allowed me to be like, ‘OK, my safety is secure, let me do everything, try to fill the gaps for others who are actively fleeing or trying to find a place to go,’ and I just sought out as many resources as possible,” Hank said. “I was just constantly monitoring what is within my power to support our team.”
According to Unincorporated’s Instagram, the Altadena cafe was forced to temporarily close, but the location in Eagle Rock continued to operate.
“I came up with a plan for [how] we continue operating the Eagle Rock Cafe in a way that’s safe while also allowing for our staff to not be completely out of work,” Hank said. “Every second was so uncertain. We were living just moment to moment.”
Hank said she and her fellow employees wanted to show up for the Altadena community in whatever ways they could. According to Unincorporated’s Instagram, the business launched a donation drive following the evacuation in partnership with the Altadena Farmers’ Market at the Eagle Rock location Jan. 19–22.
“It’s so rare to see a coffee shop as ingrained in its communities as you see with Unincorporated,” Hank said. “Over the past month, there have been so many Altadenans coming to Eagle Rock just because it’s the only place that they can find Unincorporated now. All of that is a testament to the work that not only Alan [Janoyan] and Arthur [Sohrabian] do, but all of our baristas.”
Hank, who has worked in the coffee industry since 2017, said the environment that Janoyan and Sohrabian foster at Unincorporated is unlike anything she has ever experienced.
“I’ve never worked for people like them,” Hank said. “They’re so human-oriented, like they really care about the people that work for them. They know everyone’s name in the company, they know so many regulars — they’re just such community-oriented people.”
Altadena native Kat Lingenfelser said via email that she is an Unincorporated customer-turned-barista. She said via email that she started frequenting the cafe in 2019 when Unincorporated was about a third of its current size.
“When I started getting my own time and money to spend as a college student, one of my favorite spots to spend time in my town was Unincorporated Coffee Roaster’s Altadena location,” Lingenfelser said via email. “Eventually, [I’ve come] to work for them for about a year now, which has really deepened my knowledge and passion for coffee and the community it has the power to create around it.”
Lingenfelse said via email that she is still unable to fully process the loss in Altadena, but seeing people make differences and help one another has made her incredibly proud to be a part of LA.
“Every time I see it, the destruction, especially in person, it’s hard to understand the deep reality of the situation, especially on a larger scale,” Lingenfelser said via email. “But despite that, never in my life have I ever seen such community caring for and showing up for one another.”
Janoyan said the future is unclear, even though customers want the Altadena location to reopen. Janoyan said the cafe still does not have clean water, and, according to Hank, five Unincorporated employees have lost their homes in the Eaton Fire.
Janoyan said he has hopes for Altadena’s eventual reopening, despite uncertainties.
“Thankfully we have Eagle Rock for people to go to, but I know people will be eager to reconnect in a space around coffee,” Janoyan said. “That bigger moment of everybody coming in [to Altadena] will probably be another emotional moment.”
Hank said what they do at Unincorporated is nothing without the people, and Janoyan said Unincorporated has the best customers in the world.
“The human part of connecting with people in these times was as important for me as it was to make coffee or do business because those are the connections we have with everybody,” Janoyan said. “It goes beyond the coffee.”
This story is one in a series about coffee shops around Eagle Rock.
Contact Emma Cho at echo2@oxy.edu.
