Business Briefing: Equator Coffee pairs perfectly with Golden Gate parks
Bicycling over the Golden Gate Bridge on weekends from her Marin County home to check in on Equator Coffee's latest San Francisco location, Helen M.
Russell marvels each time she sees the neon signage for the company she co-founded. It is displayed above the bridge-facing entrance to the historic Round House Cafe, part of the visitor facilities to the iconic span overseen by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
Equator took over management of the eatery with breathe-taking views last year and opened over Labor Day weekend."After 27 years of being in business, to go over the Golden Gate Bridge and to see our name, it is pretty spectacular," said Russell, the company's executive chair. "It is such an important crossroads; I just can't get over it."Russell and her life partner, Brooke McDonnell, co-founded Equator as a coffee roaster and grew the San Rafael-based company into having its own locations in San Francisco and the North Bay.
It is set to open its first Southern California outpost, in Culver City, this month.In 2016, Equator became the first-ever LGBTQ-owned business to be named a Small Business of the Year in the U.S., as the Bay Area Reporter reported at the time.
