New restaurant: Koin Coffee to open soon in Walnut Creek

Donna Allen and Tristyn Johnson first met about a year and half ago in Mexico. The two women were on a service trip with their church and connected over their mutual coffee cravings. Now, they’re days from opening a coffee shop, Koin Coffee, together in downtown Walnut Creek.

Johnson had worked at John Muir Health for years before starting a coffee shop inside the Concord Medical Center — she called it Kendra’s Cup, after her mother, who’d worked there as a nurse before she died of breast cancer.

Meanwhile, Allen had started attending law school in Sacramento before deciding it wasn’t for her. Returning to her hometown of Walnut Creek, she reconnected with Johnson and the two started talking about opening a cafe of their own.

Soon, they’d leased a space near the Kaiser Shadelands campus and were mid-remodel, with the construction taking about twice as much time and money to complete as they’d thought.

“We honestly went in not knowing what we were getting ourselves into,” Allen says.

Expect a menu of espresso drinks and housemade flavors, including a seasonal pumpkin spice latte. Pastries will come from Starter Bakery, and the menu includes various toasts decked out with toppings like Boursin cheese, avocado or cinnamon.

The cafe draws its name from the Greek word koinonia, which means community or fellowship. Johnson and Allen say they’re hoping the coffee house will serve as a slower-paced, community-focused cafe, one that invites lingering and does not offer, say, a mobile ordering option.

“To us it takes away from what’s beautiful about meeting and gathering in coffee shops,” Johnson says.

“We’re excited to start hosting people. We can’t wait for them to try everything that we’ve been working so hard to put together,” Allen says.

Details: When it opens, Koin Coffee will be open daily 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 325 N. Wiget Lane, Suite 100, in Walnut Creek; koinoniacoffee.us.