Jobot Coffee and Dining celebrated its fourth anniversary this weekend with a display of employee artwork and a showcase of local bands.
Owner John Sagasta hosts the event every year as a chance to bring the community together and show off some of the talent the shop provides, beyond the traditional barista skills. The idea originally came from Aaron Hopkins-Johnson, who was a Jobot employee before opening the used bookstore, Lawn Gnome Publishing.
“(Hopkins-Johnson) said we should name our first anniversary ‘Showbot’ and we ran with it and have been doing the event ever since,” Sagasta said.
Niki Noriega, curator for Jobot, planned the entire event for employees to show off their talent.
“What we do every year for our anniversary is put together a little group show of all the employees’ artwork,” Noriega said. “All the employees here are artists of some sort whether it be musicians, painters or sculptors.”
Jobot acts as a hub for the community, Noriega said. People have meet-ups, play chess or cards and even come to just listen to music and work on homework.
“I’ve been here just shy of four years, the community down here is great,” Noriega said. “I’ve made lots of friends whether it’s employees or customers that become long-lasting friendships.”
An audience of about 100 people attended the Friday anniversary celebration. Employees designed sculptures, collages and black-and-white ink paintings that have remained on display in the coffee shop.
The event kicked off with the band Del Funland, which consists of five students from Chandler High School.
“I love the environment Jobot provided for us that night,” lead vocalist Seth Ponzo said. “Having live music at any event is always a very exciting thing — I had a blast,”
The Ricardos, Lostctrl and Diners also performed on Friday night.
Jobot also hosted a karaoke party Saturday night and a bingo competition Sunday afternoon.
Sagasta said the shop has come a long way from what it once was.
“Jobot wasn’t as big as it is now; it started at half the size,” Sagasta said. “I had friends putting some artwork up on one half of the building and I was using the other half as a coffee shop.”
At the start, the shop didn’t even have a kitchen. Jobot only had a coffee machine and a refrigerator.
“I’m really happy with Jobot just the way it is, as far as franchising or anything like that,” Sagasta said. “I don’t know if that’ll ever happen or if for that matter I even want that to happen.”
Customer Mark Susan has been coming to Jobot for four years and prefers the coffee shop over all the others downtown.
“I like going to Jobot because of the vibe,” Susan said. “There are a lot of Phoenix coffee shops around and if you go to all of them, you’ll see each one offers something different. Jobot offers a more artsy, creative side.”
Contact the reporter at jubaxter@asu.edu
