Tim and his titular great coffee are venturing to the dark side.
The San Juan Capistrano coffee shop will shutter Thursday, Oct. 22 after more than a decade in business, making way for a new venture from owner Tim Liao and business partner Chris Schaffner. Darkside Coffee, as it will be called, will be a Japanese sci-fi-inspired spot serving coffee and breakfast by day and omakase sushi and sake on select evenings.
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Liao is targeting early February 2027 for the reopening, following roughly three months of renovations to give the space a lounge atmosphere.
The daytime operation will feature a Japanese-style coffee bar and breakfast with planned hours from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m.. On Thursday through Sunday evenings, the space will offer omakase seatings, a meal that leaves the selection up to the chef, with what Liao describes as a “speakeasy feel.”
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Liao said the evening service will focus on high-end sushi and sake. He plans to keep promotion of the omakase offering lowkey, sharing tasting menus on the down low. As for the sci-fi component, the name offers a fairly sizable clue as to its forceful inspirations, though he has no plans on testing the full chilling magnitude of the Disney legal department.
“We are just doing enough of it so we won’t get sued,” he said, with a laugh.
For Liao, retiring the current name comes with some hesitation. After all, the shop placed No. 10 on Yelp’s list of the top U.S. coffee shops in 2022 and No. 21 in 2025. “It’s a tough call because I’m changing the name,” he said.
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That unique name, one of the more refreshingly declarative and non-seafaring business names in South County, began with a flood. Liao said he opened the shop initially as Coast Coffee and Tea in 2015. But after the sprinklers went off one night, the shop underwent three weeks of repairs. When it reopened, he put up a sign announcing, “Tim is making great coffee again.”
Customers took to it. Liao, meanwhile, had grown weary of a word that appears on seemingly every other business along the coast. “I thought, you know, everything around here is called ‘Coast,’” he said. “Why don’t I just think of a unique name?”
Tim is Making Great Coffee stuck.
Now, with another renovation and another name change ahead, Liao wants regulars to know he plans to return to a place he calls “such a big part of the community.”
“We’re trying to bring more colorful places to the area,” he said.
Check it out before Liao’s spot closes in its current iteration.
Find it: 31431 Rancho Viejo Road, San Juan Capistrano, timismakinggreatcoffee.com
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