The combination of something old and something new, with a bit of metropolitan flair and small-town friendliness tossed in, makes downtown Oroville’s newest coffee café, Union Coffee Club, an inviting and comfortable place to visit with friends or gather for intimate business meetings.

Located in the newly renovated ground floor of the City of Paris Department Store building on Myers Street, the café’s 3D-form ceiling and hardwood floors have been restored to their original 1913 condition. The high ceiling, abundant windows, soft-white painted walls and open architecture create a light and comfortable space.

“We wanted to preserve the historic aspects of the building and also modernize it,” said Brian Wong, whose family company — Oro Union, Corp — purchased the building in 2020. “All the locals enjoyed the City of Paris and how dynamic and vibrant used to be. We want the community to come and experience that and the energy of this building again.”

The overall renovation plan for the two-story building is to make it a shared workspace with private and open offices along with meeting and training rooms that will be available to single-owner and small-business entrepreneurs who need work space.

And what goes better with conducting good business than good coffee? Nothing, said Wong.

“For entrepreneurs, for creative people, coffee and creativity go hand in hand, so we hope creative people come and use the space,” said Wong. “We especially wanted to create a space for the younger generation but also the rest of the community to enjoy.”

To manifest a space that would appeal to the general public but particularly Millennials and Generation Z, Wong put together a dynamic team of twentysomethings, most of whom are Oroville natives, to develop and manage the new business.

The energetic hometown team is led by Wong’s son and Union Coffee Club president, Hunter Wong, an Oroville High School graduate who holds a degree in international business from the University of Southern California.

Sara Nolind, an Oroville native and graduate of Durham High School and Butte College, serves as the club treasurer. Wong’s daughter, Forest Wong, also an Oroville High School graduate who holds a fine art degree from Columbia University serves as the club’s art director. The club’s fourth executive team member is another Oroville High School graduate and the young Wongs’ cousin, Nicole Wong, who is currently attending Fordham University in New York and is the club’s product director.

“I’m just so darn excited to be part of this team,” said Nolind. “Excited to be bringing this concept and idea to life and share it with the community.”

Rounding out the team are Alex Rivera, club coffee director, and Carver Nevling, director of food development, who also serves as the chef at Union restaurant (Oro Union, Corp’s other downtown business).

‘Authentic’ ethos

The business name and team titles reflect the vibe Hunter Wong is intent on creating. He said they want the café to feel like a recreational club like those on college campuses where “creative, like-minded people who are passionate about good coffee and tea” come to meet, socialize and learn in an “authentic, non-corporate environment where relationships between staff and club members, who are the customers, are authentic.”

“I wanted to create a coffee shop that I would want to go to,” said Hunter Wong. “So, the way we designed the space is very metropolitan. We wanted to bring back some of the elements from the historic aspects of the building but also some big-city elements to liven up downtown Oroville with some youthful energy.

“It’s like being transported to a big city when you come in, so it’s unusual, not something you’d expect in Oroville. People are enjoying it.”

Going hand-in-hand with the urbanite atmosphere is the café’s “elevated” drink menu where the drinks are not overly sweet, the coffee isn’t bitter and the teas are not just afterthoughts on the bill of fare, said Hunter Wong.

To that end, the club serves locally roasted coffees from Rhapsody Coffee and Stoble Coffee Roasters in Chico as well as Verve Coffee Roasters in Santa Cruz. Specialty teas on the menu include an imported Japanese ceremonial-grade matcha and locally-made Chico Chai. There are also four Chinese teas — ancient tree red tea, honey orchid oolong, big red jacket tea and wild red tea — curated by Louisa Louie (Hunter and Forest Wong’s mother and Brian Wong’s wife) during a recent trip in China.

The club makes all its flavored sweetening syrups in-house, including an elderberry hibiscus used in the elderberry hibiscus matcha iced latte. The club also makes a syrup from organic lavender from Bayliss Botanicals in Biggs and a toasted black sesame syrup made from seeds toasted in a wok by Hunter and Forest’s grandfather, Wing Chung Louie. The toasted black sesame syrup is featured in the black sesame latte and the black sesame matcha latte, two of the café’s most delicious and unusual drinks.

“Our intention is to offer quality in our environment, hospitality and in our traditional and new and unique products,” said Rivera. “We offer all the milk-based drinks with whole dairy milk, oat milk or macadamia nut milk. And the quantity of each ingredient in our drinks focuses on balance, bringing all the flavors together perfectly without anything being too sweet or overpowering so the flavors of the coffee or tea are not masked.”

‘Creative aspects’

The café also offers light food items including the already popular breakfast sandwich with hot-honey glazed bacon, cheddar cheese, scrambled eggs, smoked garlic aioli and avocado served on a “really cool bun that’s a hybrid of between a brioche and croissant,” said Hunter Wong.

Other popular menu items include the breakfast burrito stuffed with smashed tater-tots, cheddar cheese, bacon and scrambled eggs served with the house salsa; and the mushroom toast served on Chico’s Camina Bakery’s blonde bread. The local bakery is also the source for some of the café’s pastry items, though the chocolate chip cookies and blueberry lemon scones as well as a few other items are made in-house.

For those who need to dash, the grab-and-go menu offers salads, small bites, overnight oats and chia seed pudding all of which are made in-house with fresh ingredients.

In addition to “connecting with the community” over good coffee and tasty bites, Hunter Wong said he wants the business to engage with the community through fun workshops including those that teach people how to brew really good coffee and tea. Additional plans include a flower bouquet arranging workshop and pop-up fashion events as well as other events to “engage with every age group.”

“The most fun part for me in addition to being an active member of the community, which is something my parents instilled in me, is definitely the creative aspects of the business,” said Hunter Wong. “Being able to introduce locals to new things that they think are pretty good and yummy is the most fun. It’s great when we come up with drinks or food that we think are super interesting and tasty and our customers enjoy them and agree. That affirmation is cool.”

Union Coffee Club is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. For more information and to learn about the entire menu, visit unioncoffeeclub.com

Reach Kyra Gottesman at kgottesman@chicoer.com