Necessity Coffee Expands Across North County San Diego with Colombian Direct Trade Focus

A San Diego roaster who built his career opening specialty cafes across the Southwest has planted his own flag in North County. Jon Runion’s Necessity Coffee reopened in Encinitas in January and launched a second location in San Marcos the same month, bringing producer-direct Colombian coffees and inventive signature drinks to coastal California.

Runion’s path to owning his own cafes wound through a decade of building someone else’s. He started at Dark Horse Coffee Roasters in San Diego in 2013, moved to Phoenix to help Union Coffee open its first location, and later assisted with Copa Vida’s San Marcos opening. When that space became available after Copa Vida relocated, Runion saw his opportunity. He took the lease and moved Necessity into a ready-made 1,600-square-foot cafe.

Ficus Trees and Pink Espresso Machines

The Encinitas flagship relocated four blocks south to 687 2nd Street, where a prominent ficus tree shades the corner of 2nd and F Streets. The 1,000-square-foot space includes a kitchen—Necessity’s first—serving breakfast toasts, tartines, and sandwiches alongside pastries from Split Bakehouse. A cream-and-coral colour scheme accented with sage green carries across both locations.

Equipment tells part of the story. Both cafes run La Marzocco Linea EE AV espresso machines—white in Encinitas, pink in San Marcos—paired with Poursteady PS2 automatic pourover systems. The Poursteady lets baristas showcase single-origin coffees without sacrificing consistency during busy service.

Runion roasts on a San Franciscan SF-25 at California Roasting Collective in San Marcos. The arrangement gives him production capacity without the capital requirements of building a dedicated roastery.

Colombian Partnerships Front and Centre

Necessity’s sourcing centres on Colombia, where Runion works with four producers: Elkin Guzman, Rodrigo Sanchez, Nestor Lasso, and Sebastian Ramirez. Ally Coffee handles the importing. The result is a rotation of Colombian lots that customers can follow by name, knowing whose farm produced what ended up in their cup.

Costa Rican coffees arrive through Selva Coffee, while Guatemalan beans come via Onyx Coffee. Ethiopian coffees make appearances for seasonal specials and filter brews.

Cocktail Thinking Without the Alcohol

Where Necessity distinguishes itself is the signature drink menu, which rotates every six weeks. The Smoke Is Rising takes Ethiopian cold brew, clarifies it with whole milk, finishes it with orange bitters and lapsang simple syrup, and serves it under a bubble of hickory smoke. The Bloody Good Thyme combines flash-brewed Colombian coffee with blood orange, thyme, chinchona bark, and Tajin over ice.

These aren’t gimmicks layered onto mediocre coffee. Runion starts with the beans and works outward, using cocktail techniques to highlight rather than mask the underlying flavour. When Ethiopian naturals offer fruity complexity, smoke and citrus amplify rather than obscure it.

The approach reflects Necessity’s three stated pillars: sourcing exceptional beans that often are not available elsewhere, serving innovative rotating drinks, and delivering genuine hospitality.

Scaling Back to Scale Up

Since opening the San Marcos location, Runion has begun stepping back from wholesale to focus on his own cafes. The decision prioritises retail presence and direct customer relationships over the volume that wholesale demands.

Both locations operate seven days a week, with extended evening hours planned for Encinitas as the kitchen develops its food programme in collaboration with Manny Da Luz and Charlie Knowles of Bica restaurant. A third North County location is already in planning.

Why This Matters

Specialty coffee in San Diego has grown crowded. What separates Necessity from the field is specificity: named Colombian producers, cocktail-inspired drinks that change with the seasons, and a founder who spent a decade learning how cafes succeed before opening his own.

For coffee drinkers in Encinitas and San Marcos, Necessity offers something harder to find than good espresso—a roaster who knows exactly who grew the beans, and baristas who know how to transform that provenance into drinks worth returning for.

Necessity Coffee Encinitas is at 687 2nd Street. Necessity Coffee San Marcos is at 250 North City Drive. Both are open daily.