While pondering a list of potential names for our new cafe (with a deadline looming), my wife said to me, “you’d better hurry up and decide or you’ll be late for the train.”  
Much has happened since that day in 1992, but the name stuck. Today we’re still roasting dark, brewing strong, and enjoying every train that roars through town.  
While pondering a list of potential names for our new cafe (with a deadline looming), my wife said to me, “you’d better hurry up and decide or you’ll be late for the train.” Much has happened since that day in 1992, but the name stuck. Today we’re still roasting dark, brewing strong, and enjoying every train that roars through town.

HERE AT LATE FOR THE TRAIN,
WE LOVE COFFEE AND WHAT IT MEANS…

We opened our first cafe after I moved to Flagstaff in the Summer of 1992 with my wife and two kids. By Fall, just five months later, I had signed a lease and opened our first Late for the Train cafe. My dream was to share the experience of coffee as I had discovered it while working for Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Menlo Park, California: the pleasure of a simple joy in life, but one that had an impact around the globe. I left Peet’s knowing that one day I would roast coffee. After Pete’s, I joined Carl Jone’s team at Arabica Coffee & Tea in Cleveland and fell in love with the cafe experience. Carl gave me an opportunity to experience cafes as spaces for social connection and celebration of people and place.

Working for both Alfred Peet and Carl Jones showed me that being in the coffee trade transcended the idea of what owning a business could be all about. By the end of my stay in Ohio with Arabica, I was thoroughly hooked on the idea of not only roasting my own coffee, but also starting my own cafe.

~ Dave Dobrick
Owner

WHAT DRIVES OUR PASSION

Ifound this quote years ago by Anu Aga, that sums up my experiences with coffee and has guided my stewardship of Late For The Train. It reads, “We survive by breathing but we can’t say we live to breathe. Likewise, making money is very important for a business to survive, but money alone cannot be the reason for business to exist.”

Great coffee, great service, great experience.

At Late for the Train, we set out to create vibrant cafes that reflect, welcome, and inspire our community, with great coffee, great service, and great environments.

We consciously created a cafe setting that allows community to happen, while offering the best coffee drinking experience possible. We don’t brand our “hello”, inquire about your personal doings, or ask if you want to “upsize” every time you place an order.

Our cafe experience is not just a product of our policies, procedures, and principles, but of what our staff and customers make it. Our staff are renowned for their good nature and unpretentious service, devoted to tilting your day, hopefully leaving you feeling better than when you arrived.