Strolling down Malden in downtown Fullerton thinking to myself “Is there no place to get a good cup-a-Joe at 7am? And then I saw her coming up the alley wearing a heavy coat that hid her curves but I knew what she was packing. She had a face you couldn’t remember that you should have forgot. But for now I was strictly in the present and when she disappeared behind a door that read, “Max Bloom’s Café Noir” I was all bloodhound. It was one of those places frozen in time during the late 1940’s but only recently thawed. Even the price for a cup of coffee was still under a buck! Off in the corner you could almost see Billie Holiday in front of a Gulbransen Piano and 1947 Gibson guitar as music seeped from an old record player, “He’s not much on looks, he’s no hero out of books”. The smell of fresh roasted Max Bloom’s coffee, donuts, muffins, cookies and cakes brought me back to my senses. I heard the kaa-chunk as the door of an old icebox filled with vintage sodas was opened and the thing looked like it was just delivered by Sears & Roebucks. This place was like a movie museum with a giant espresso machine. Had I really stepped back in time? “Hey mack,” I asked the owner behind the counter “who’s Max Bloom?” He just laughed. It was then that I saw her sitting on a stool at the bar watching the blades of a Hamilton Beach malt mixer spin. “A milkshake at 7 in the morning?” I inquired. “Just a piece of the past to sweeten the present.” The owner asked if her beverage would be for here or to go and she hesitated before answering, giving me an up and down glance. “To go” was her reply, but all I could hear by then was Billie singing the blues, “What’s the difference if I say I’ll go away, when I know I’ll come back.”
“Maxwell Bloom like a half forgotten tune, walks the street beneath a cloudy day.
A man out of season, a force beyond reason, searching for a past that got away.”
So begins the theme song for an unfinished film Lost Angeles about a hard boiled detective searching the present for clues to his identity from the past. Max’s untold story would ultimately provide the genesis for the café named in his honor – Max Bloom’s Café Noir. Although our journey to bring Max Bloom out of the past and into downtown Fullerton was plagued by pitfalls and Kafkaesque bureaucratic absurdities, we eventually opened our doors to the public. Now it’s up to you to keep us going.
Questions and answers:
What can I expect at Max Bloom’s Café Noir? Fresh roasted coffee for under a buck served in an authentic post war 1940’s environment; an ever changing array of baked goods, many created from vintage recipes; fresh squeezed orange juice; milkshakes and malts blended by an authentic 1940’s commercial mixer; self-serve vintage sodas; an unparalleled collection of Film Noir artwork; an impressive library of film, California history and period books; music cd’s and dvd’s for sale (purged of over-commercialized worthless fluff); historical displays about coffee, Fullerton, Orange County, California and the American automobile; and period musical instruments just waiting for the right jazz musician or two to bring them to life. Every Thursday we roast fresh coffee beans and sell them by weight the following day in refillable Mason Jars, which hold just under a pound of roasted coffee. There is so much more we have planned and with the help of the local community and beyond, things will only get better.
How did you get into coffee? Long before Max Bloom came into being, I was a coffee connoisseur in search of the perfect brew. Frustrated by over roasted and over priced options all too prevalent in a dwindling sea of independent alternatives, I became an enthusiastic home roaster. Purchasing 5 pound bags of green beans from coffee farms in Africa, Indonesia and South & Central America I experimented by trial and error and eventually succeeded at consistently creating a fantastic cup of coffee. Since the extraction method commonly used today was first employed in the late 1940’s I began collecting and restoring vintage espresso machines and immersing myself into the history of coffee. Soon I was pulling shots and making espresso drinks for friends, family, my business partner Kevin Carter, and ultimately customers who were soon requesting their own pound of our fresh roasted coffee. When home roasting could no longer produce enough coffee to meet the ever growing demand we employed a local roaster to reproduce our signature blend in larger quantities. In time we succeeded and all that was missing was that special place to fully enjoy our own cuppa joe . . . until now!
Why Fullerton? Having grown up in Orange County, where open spaces are anathema and historic buildings wasteful impediments to strip malls, it was either pull up our roots and relocate, or find an OC city that at least made an attempt to preserve its historic downtown. The Fullerton Historic Theater Foundation with its efforts to save the Fox Theater from a similar fate were inspirational and instrumental to our decision. We have not given up the battle to save Orange County from cultural irrelevance and Max Bloom’s Café Noir is our contribution to that effort.
Why Noir? Back in 2002 I started EklecticMovies.com, a subscription service and movie review site specializing in obscure and under-appreciated films with an emphasis on Film Noir. At one time I had over 5000 titles, several hundred original movie posters, artwork, stills, and an impressive library of books. Many of those films are now available for purchase at Max Bloom’s where the library has been reinstituted and the artwork can be found hanging on our walls.
Why do you only accept cash? Aside from not wanting to further contribute to the profits of banks and credit card companies who create consumer addicts out of Americans and then exploit that addiction? Cash lowers your cost for a cup of coffee - plain and simple.
Is Max Bloom a real person? Maxwell Bloom was initially a Film Noir detective who existed only in a screenplay I authored. My business partner Kevin Carter, and soon to be co-creator of Max Bloom’s Café Noir, shortened the name to Max and thereafter this character metamorphosed into something much more. He’s become a representation of a bygone era when America, despite all her flaws, was the envy of the world. “Made in America” was the universal seal of quality, innovation and a source of enormous pride. Max Bloom’s Café Noir is determined to reclaim that America. Lately, there have been numerous sightings of a non-descript man dressed in trench coat and Fedora hat parking a black 1949 Plymouth Special Deluxe in front of the café. Some claim to have seen him enter the premises as if he owned the place. Perhaps in some way he does.
Hope to see you soon!
Stephen Sprague and Kevin Carter