Jamie McCormick, who has worked in coffee since 1986, decided on a swing in an Alameda park that he wanted to open a coffee shop. The name means embrace, and comes from a Brazilian pop song by Gilberto Gil. He opened on East 7th Street with Liz Quijada, who agreed to bake for the shop, and they moved across the street to number 81 in 2016.
Glazed doors at both ends bring daylight into a narrow room with a long timber bar down one side and a red banquette along the other, under white globe pendant lights. Benches sit either side of the front entrance.
