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Local orange blossom honey sweetens the menu at Buzz & Brew, a new Redwood City coffee shop by the team behind Redwood Grill.
Located in the former Redwood Grill Market space, Buzz & Brew is a takeaway cafe that offers espresso beverages, drip coffee, matcha, lemonade and cold-brewed coffee and tea, flavored with housemade syrups and local honey. Owner Johnny Arreola said the idea to open a coffee shop came about after hearing from the community that it was much needed in the area.
“The feedback from the community has been incredible,” he said. “People tell us, ‘We’ve lived here for years and always wished there was a coffee shop,’ or, ‘We just moved into the neighborhood, and it’s so nice to have somewhere we can walk to.”
So he decided to revamp the Redwood Grill Market – which previously offered takeout, grab-and-go options and a curated selection of goods, and is located adjacent to Redwood Grill – into a coffee shop. The name Buzz & Brew has a double meaning: “buzz” refers to the shop’s local honey and the caffeine buzz from coffee.
“We wanted to create drinks made with high-quality, house-made ingredients rather than artificial sweeteners and syrups,” Arreola said. “By using local honey as a natural sweetener, we’re able to create custom syrups and beverages that taste great while using ingredients we feel good about serving.”
The shop’s top-selling drink is the Honey Bee, a shaken espresso with honey, cinnamon, sea salt and a splash of your choice of milk ($6.95). Other housemade syrup flavors include banana bread, cardamom vanilla, mango, strawberry and brown sugar.
Coffee beans are from Olympus Coffee, a wholesale coffee roaster in Antioch. Espresso beans are from Central America and Southeast Asia with tasting notes of chocolate and caramel, while house beans are from Central and South America with tasting notes of caramel, toasted nuts and a touch of cocoa. Decaf coffee is also available, sourced from South America with notes of chocolate, caramel and toasted nuts.
Arreola said running a takeaway coffee shop is a completely different experience from operating a restaurant. In a restaurant, if a guest is unhappy with their meal, the food can be sent back and remade. But with a coffee shop, “we have one chance and one opportunity to do things correctly, because people are taking this and leaving with it. So it’s really important that we’re doing things the right way,” he said.
If Buzz & Brew is successful, Arreola hopes to eventually open more locations.
Buzz & Brew’s June 3 opening comes about at the same time as LUMA Coffee Lounge, a craft coffee from the team behind Kaizen & Coffee. Other recent Redwood City coffee shop openings include Cappucho and Sana’a Cafe in October and Con Azucar Cafe in May 2025.
Buzz & Brew, 352 Woodside Plaza, Redwood City; 650-613-8676, Instagram: @buzzandbrewco. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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