Through the Lebanese culture runs a thick ribbon of honor and pride of legacy, father to son, mother to daughter. Hrag Kalebjian grew up dreading Saturday mornings, when his father Henry would drag him out of bed and into the specialty foods store where he roasted coffee. "I just wanted to watch cartoons," Hrag says, and eventually he left the family business altogether to work in corporate finance.

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Avoca Coffee was established three years ago in the historic Near Southside district of Fort Worth, TX, the project of childhood friends Garold LaRue and Jimmy Story. “I’m a fifth-generation coffee grower,” says Garold, “and at eighteen when I started working, I decided to become a barista. I’ve been in coffee ever since—seen part of the 2nd wave, the 3rd wave, and the birth of the new wave, whatever it is.” Living with his coffee-farming family in Nicaragua until 1985, when the family escaped the revolution to Fort Worth, Garold has a unique perspective on coffee.

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