By Ashley Hallinan
The smell of roasting coffee while driving down Center Street, near Downtown Stockton, draws patrons into The Well.
The establishment offers a place to gather, learn, and collaborate. David and Raegan Cicileo’s coffee shop, eatery, venue and collab center is a staple for the Stockton patrons that have discovered the community gem.
The space provides a cozy environment, delicious food and tantalizing coffee.
Natalie Seals of Stockton comes to The Well every Saturday with her knitting group.
“They really provide a place for people to connect and an environment where connections can be made. They have a place where people can create downstairs, they have classrooms, collaborating with the community, they provide outreach and scholarships for the community,” said Seals about what she enjoys most.
Seals compliments the food and craft coffee as another reason the group enjoys meeting at the location.
“This is an all-inclusive place. They don’t care what background you come from, they just want people to get together, find each other, make new friendships, eat good food and just continue to grow in size and outreach,” Seals added.
Donté Miller has been frequenting The Well for the past several months on Saturdays to work on his dissertation for his PhD in higher education at Indiana State University.
Miller serves as the Executive Director of Campus Life at University of the Pacific, overseeing student organizations and recreation.
He stated, “My main thing is to come here, get some coffee, get some food at times, get some of Mama’s good, delicious cookies and get my writing done.”
Raegan is known as “Mama Rae” according to an article on The Well’s website. When the Cicileo’s first moved to the neighborhood, Raegan would sit out on a picnic blanket and offer homemade chocolate chip cookies to the kids passing by.
The Well boasts a menu of various food selections and decadent beverage offerings with coffee beans that have been roasted in-house, a rarity among similar cafes.
Ben Kenoyer is part of the roasting collaborative and a barista at The Well.
He started roasting coffee in his parent’s laundry room when he was just 18. With the roasting space at The Well, encouragement from the Cicileo’s, Kenoyer’s passion for coffee roasting led him to start his business, Revive Roasters, in 2020.
“The roasting collaborative, right now, is two coffee roasters roasting in our space and our goal is just to provide the best coffee in Stockton,” said Kenoyer about the roasting collaborative.
Brianna Rojas is a barista that was recently promoted to manager at The Well. She originally found the establishment through her love for coffee shops and started as a volunteer in 2022.
“We have so many different events varying from having a baby shower to having birthdays to a knitting club that gathers here every Saturday to different groups that just like to meet here,” said Rojas of the events held at The Well. “We also have our office space meeting room and our great room that hosts many different events.”
LISTEN TO A FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVE OF A VISIT TO THE WELL
The Well offers vocational education classes including music, vocals, recording, graphic design, art, and performing arts. It also offers opportunities for organic youth mentorship including options of training and mentorship in the roastery, coffee shop, screen printing or food service.
As a venue for community events, The Well has hosted poetry readings, fundraising banquets, art shows, birthday parties and meetings.
The Cicileos are dedicated members of the Stockton community, with roots going back 13 years.
“We created a non-profit over the years called Restore Stockton, where we were mentoring youth in the neighborhood because the youth just started coming to our house,” said Raegan Cicileo. “It grew into a mentor program and then all those kids were growing up and needed skills. We started dreaming up what a public place would look like where we could bring people in to do vocational training and find their gifts and talents.”
Coffee beans in the roasting process at The Well in downtown Stockton.
The entrance to The Well from the back parking lot.
A customer ordering at "the front desk."
The beverage selection menu at The Well.
A local knitting group that meets every Saturday at The Well.
Ben Kenoyer, barista and owner of Revive Roasters, with a prepared latte.
Baristas making coffee for customers at The Well.
A latte and Mama Rae's chocolate chip cookies. The cookies are made by Raegan Cicileo, owner of The Well.
Duane Sanders and Carlos Ramirez contributed to this report.
