By: Emma Wolf

Barista by day, bartender by night, Thomas Pettus-Czar brews coffee and mixes cocktails for two café and bar establishments he founded in Eugene called The Barn Light. This blend of Americanos and alcohol might seem uncommon, but for Pettus-Czar these two havens are a dream come true. Pettus-Czar “fell in love” with the unique medley while working as a bartender and barista in Lawrence, Kansas during college. Seeing an architecture degree as the stepping stone to opening his own establishment, he came to Oregon to attend graduate school.

Or, at least, that was the plan.

“Late in studio one night, I’ll never forget,” Pettus-Czar recalls. “It was like 3 in the morning and there was two of us.” Pettus-Czar’s classmate Chris turned to him and asked why he was in architecture school. Pettus-Czar responded by sharing his dream of opening his own bar and coffee shop. Pettus-Czar smiles, recalling Chris’s response, and says, “He turned around and looked at me real seriously and said, ‘You know you don’t need a degree in architecture to do that, right?’” Pettus-Czar reflects on this moment, saying it felt like a minor exchange at the time, but in reality, “It changed the course of my life forever.”

Heeding the advice of his classmate, Pettus-Czar left graduate school and focused on making The Barn Light a reality. His dream came to fruition with the first branch opening in 2012.

Two principles underlying The Barn Light’s mission are providing a comfortable atmosphere and fostering community relationships. When he moved to Oregon, Pettus-Czar says, “There were a lot of sports bars and college bars, but there wasn’t that place that I really felt comfortable.” The Barn Light is a place one can go to for alone time as well as vibrant conversation. More importantly, it is a place where relationships are established and nurtured, and Pettus-Czar believes this starts with sourcing relationships; coffee and food are locally sourced to both locations.

“We’re using Bespoken Coffee Roasters, an awesome husband and wife team out of Corvallis,” says Pettus-Czar. Bespoken, he says, “aligns with our values… and the types of relationships we like to develop.” All meat products come from Long’s Meat Market, a local legacy business, and vegetables are sourced locally as well. “The reasoning behind that,” explains Pettus-Czar, “is you’re supporting the local economy, the quality is a lot better, it’s more sustainable, there are just so many benefits.”

On the day of this interview, Pettus-Czar was expecting the delivery of a built-to-order “powder pink” coffee roaster. With this purchase, they will start roasting their own coffee, “hyper-localizing”, and hopefully sourcing to other shops in the area. The new company is called Slightly Coffee Roasters, encouraging consumers to “Drink ‘Slightly’ Better Coffee”, and will emerge soon on the local coffee scene.