Our people
Our passion for coffee is the biggest thing our team has in common. Beyond that,we're one wildly eclectic bunch. Our team is made up of artists, musicians, writers, surfers, motorcycle enthusiasts, drag queens, ceramicists, cyclists, DJs, mycologists, acupuncturists, and activists.
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Lorenzo de Amicis
Service Manager
Lorenzo’s official job is keeping the equipment up and running, both in our cafes and the cafes of our wholesale partners. That should be enough work for any one person. Lorenzo, however, dabbles in a few other interests. And when we say “dabbles,” what we mean is, “He owned his own garage, where he repaired 1960s race cars.”
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Sam Spillman
Director of Coffee and Cafe Experience
From her first coffee job to fast forward 10 years in the industry as barista, trainer, and now Director of Coffee for Caffe Vita, community has always been her focus. Coffee is a tool to bring people together from all over the world. That made Vita a natural home for Sam, who embodies the notion that-- as she herself would say-- "without people, coffee is just a plant".
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Scott Baldwin
Director of Sales
Scott is the perfect robot version of an indie coffee Director of Sales. It’s like two nerdy kids in 1980s suburban Seattle hacked their home computer, creating a guy who digs soccer (of course), who brews his own beer (duh), lives for camping (naturally), and loves a neat organic espresso (obviously).
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dana ericsson
Head of Accounts
Dana’s favorite part of working at Vita is bringing together the different parts of the team for events and festivals. Whether she’s doing that remotely or in-person, Dana serves as the glue holding together all of our loose ends. Sort of like those superheroes with the super-stretchy arms and sticky tractor beams, you know the ones.
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Alicia Basinger
Director of Retail Operations
You can trust Alicia—we certainly do. She’s been here since starting as a barista in 2008. Over these dozen years, we’ve learned a lot about Alicia—and not just her taste in short iced americanos. She’s an incredible colleague who supports, listens to, and builds connections between Vita’s diverse crew of baristas and patrons.
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Max McLoughlin
Creative Director
Maximilian McLoughlin is really happy for you, and he’s gonna let you finish, but Caffe Luna makes one of the best French presses of all time. When Max is in a French-ass restaurant, hurry up with his damn croissants. Max isn’t a morning person, so the first thing he does when he wakes up is grind up a cup of Vita.
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Michael Mendoza
Coffee Educator
It only took one cup of delicious coffee and a friendly barista to change Michael’s life. Now, as the Head Wholesale Trainer in Seattle, he helps baristas take Caffe Vita’s coffee and make people’s days, no matter who or where they are. It’s his passion to ensure that our Wholesale Partners have access to the training and education that will empower them to brew the best coffee they can, while creating a memorable experience for people on both sides of the coffee bar.
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Kate Van Petten
Marketing
Kate moved from their hometown of Chicago to Seattle in 2016 with their band. They have degrees in marketing and playwriting from Wesleyan University. They have worked in marketing for almost a decade, supporting a radio station, theatre company, YouTube channel, clothing boutique, and for the past four years, Caffe Vita.
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Kori Nyquist
Assistant Warehouse Manager
Kori joined us in the warehouse a couple years ago, and is now our Assistant Warehouse Manager. Kori is a person of exquisite taste, and something of a sensualist. For instance, Kori’s favorite drink? A quad shot oat milk latte.
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brian edwards
Account Manager
Before accepting his account manager position, Brian hustled his way into our hearts as a Vita delivery driver. Maybe it was his time navigating Seattle traffic all morning that turned him into the mocha monster he is today.
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deming maclise
CEO, Owner
Deming came to Seattle in the early 90s as a musician, working as a Barista by day while playing in bands at night. Eventually he opened his own coffee house, Caffe Fiore, then three more locations and 12 restaurants later he took over Caffe Vita in January 2020. He still plays music everyday, is an avid concert goer and loves coffee house culture. Favorite coffee drink: Cortado with oat milk. First concert ever: The Police
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tom buckley
Chief Operations Officer
Tom in the 1990’s worked for Mostly Muffins -- a bakery that sold pink cookies and blueberry cream cheese muffins to all the coffee shops around town. When Vita started up in 1995, blocks away from Mostly Muffins, it quickly became Tom’s favorite coffee. Fast forward to 2002, Tom started his journey with Vita as a minority partner and VP of Sales and Marketing. In 2012, Tom moved to a Sales Director role at La Marzocco. In 2020, Tom was recruited back to Vita by new owner Deming Maclise to help bring out the best Vita can offer.
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Leslie Kwon
East Coast Educator + Account Manager
Leslie is the Educator and Account Manager for Caffe Vita in New York City. She is passionate about connecting people from all walks of life through food and drinks. Her favorite movie is Ratatouille.
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Jasyn Byrum
Purchasing Manager
Jasyn has been in the coffee industry for over 10 years. He started as a service technician for Visions Espresso and moved to La Marzocco where he spent many years in the parts department. Jasyn loves the coffee industry's tight-knit community of weirdos who are passionate about what they do. In his spare time, he enjoys being in nature and making electronic music. At home he sips espresso from his La Marzocco Linea Mini and when out in nature, the AeroPress is his preferred brew method.
Join our team
Wondering what it’s like to work with us? Ask around any of our cafes and you'll hear the same thing: When you work at Vita you become part of a tight-knit community. We're the most humble, diverse, fun-loving, and kind coffee enthusiasts you'll ever meet.
Some of us are award-winning baristas and some live for our morning coffee ritual. We’re committed to building teams and lives that are healthy, secure, and supportive. We do everything we can to ensure our team members thrive.
See open positionsbenefits
Opportunities for career development (including paid ongoing education)
401K for full-time employees
Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance for full-time employees
Paid vacation for full-time employees
Employee discount on merch, beans, and food
Free drinks
My favorite trainings are with FareStart's Barista Youth Program, which trains underprivileged youth as baristas. Caffe Vita donates the coffee for FareStart’s youth barista program, and our training team gets to host tours, trainings, and Q&As on the many different ways they can be involved in the coffee industry. It’s exciting to share my passion for coffee with kids, showing them how they can turn passions into careers.
Michael, Coffee Educator
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