Fondo Coffee: The Westminster, California Roaster Named for a Long Bike Ride

A Roaster Spotlight, first published in our newsletter, What's Brewing, on August 12, 2026. The coffee lineup is as of that date.

At a glance

• Roaster: Fondo Coffee, Westminster, California (Orange County)
• Owner: Robert McCray, a retired special education teacher and lifelong cyclist
• Roasting since: 2024, in small batches from a home kitchen
• Style: medium by default, lighter or darker to order
• The name: in cycling, a fondo is a long, hard ride

Fondo is a cycling word. It means a long, hard ride, the kind that empties your legs and clears your head. It is also the name Robert McCray gave his coffee roastery in Westminster, California. Once you hear how he found coffee, the name fits.

Robert McCray has ridden the western California coast for 35 years. The roastery takes its name from the sport.

From the classroom and the bike to the roaster

Robert spent 28 years as a special education teacher and 35 years riding road and gravel bikes up and down the western California coast. He grew up around Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, in Orange County, and settled in Westminster not long after he married. Cycling was the constant. Coffee came later, and it came from the bike.

The moment he points to is 2011. A riding buddy told him to stop at a new place near his house, Portola Coffee Lab in Costa Mesa. "That was a game changer for me," Robert says. A barista turned a cup into an experience he could not forget, and after that the ordinary coffee stop would not do. He started hunting down good coffee wherever he rode, and somewhere in those years the thought arrived that he might be able to do what those shops did.

He began roasting in 2024. He says he would have started earlier, but he was intimidated, unsure he could roast to a level other people would enjoy. So he practiced, handed bags to friends and family, and waited to hear what they thought. They were sold.

Roasting in small batches from a home kitchen in Westminster.

A business planned around retirement

Fondo Coffee started as a plan for life after teaching. Robert mapped it out about two years before he retired and built the business toward that date. The name came from a friend he has known for more than 30 years. In cycling, a fondo is a long or strenuous ride, which fit a rider like Robert, and it does its job as a name: people ask what Fondo means, which is exactly the kind of conversation he likes to have.

The early days were not what he expected. Friends and family were easy customers. The hard part was the first stranger, the person who had never heard of him. It took several months and a run of ads on Google, Instagram, and Facebook before one arrived. That first customer had searched for a specialty coffee roaster near them and found Fondo. "That first sale from someone I didn't know was the best," he says. The biggest surprise of running a roastery, he adds, is how much of the job is social media, and that he is the one running all of it.

What Robert chases in the cup

Robert roasts in small batches, medium by default, and he will roast lighter or darker to order. What he is after is the coffee the farmer already grew. If a bean is meant to taste fruity and orange-forward with a full body, his job is to bring those notes out rather than roast over them. He builds his lineup around consistency, so your everyday bag tastes the way it should every time, and he takes feedback and adjusts when a customer wants something different. For a small roaster, he says, the difference is the relationship. He is accessible, and he likes talking coffee with the people who buy his.

The coffee he is proudest of is the Mexico La Laja, a honey-processed bean he calls sweet and creamy with a mild orange acidity. Robert is an espresso person, so at home he pulls it into cappuccinos and lattes, and makes pour-overs for his wife and daughter.

Mexico La Laja, honey processed. Robert's description: sweet and creamy with a mild orange acidity.

The Fondo Coffee lineup and sourcing

His green coffee comes through a specialty importer who tracks the things a one-person roastery cannot chase alone, fair trade status and farm certifications among them. As of August 2026 the lineup ran deep for a shop this size: two Ethiopias, two Costa Ricans, a Peru, the Mexican honey, a Swiss Water decaf from Guatemala, and an espresso blend. The next goal is to build direct relationships with the farmers themselves.

When he is not at the roaster, he is with his family or on the bike, still riding around 20 hours a week, still stopping for coffee, and still happy to talk shop with any roaster who will talk back.

His one lesson for a new roaster

We put that question to Robert in the Roast Local roaster community. His answer:

"Be patient and listen to others who can give you advice. I constantly ask for feedback and try my best to apply what I've heard. The results take time, but they are worth the wait."

Find Fondo Coffee

Fondo Coffee's profile, with its current coffees, is on Roast Local. For more roasters nearby, see all California roasters or our California coffee scene guide.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Fondo Coffee located? Fondo Coffee is in Westminster, California, in Orange County. Robert McCray roasts in small batches from a home kitchen there.

What does the name Fondo mean? Fondo is a cycling term for a long or strenuous ride. Owner Robert McCray has ridden road and gravel bikes on the California coast for 35 years, and a friend of more than 30 years suggested the name.

Who owns Fondo Coffee? Robert McCray, who spent 28 years as a special education teacher. He planned the roastery about two years before retiring and began roasting in 2024.

What kind of coffee does Fondo Coffee roast? Medium by default, with lighter or darker roasts to order. As of August 2026 the lineup included two Ethiopias, two Costa Ricans, a Peru, a honey-processed Mexico La Laja, a Swiss Water decaf from Guatemala, and an espresso blend.