Many professional baseball players toil for years in the minor leagues before getting a shot in the big leagues. Even a mere days-long stint – commonly referred to as “a cup of coffee” – with a major league club can fulfill a boyhood dream.
Turlock’s Brett Cumberland never had that “cup of coffee” in the majors … but he’s making up for it now.
Cumberland and his wife, Brittany, are the owners of Grace & Gather Coffee in downtown Turlock, serving up gourmet coffee at 133 W. Main St., where they share space with Intro clothing boutique.
“A lot of people think that I’m Grace,” said Brittany.
“And they think I’m Gather,” Brett quipped.
Grace & Gather had been open for nearly a year on a limited basis – as a temporary food facility – but has been fully operational since Oct. 1, brewing about 150 cups per day on the weekends.
The shop is open Monday, Thursday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 8 to 2, and closed on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“As we continue to grow, we’re hoping to be open additional days,” he said.
Brett was a standout catcher at Turlock High, earning a scholarship to play at the University of California, Berkeley. He left school early when he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the second round of the 2016 MLB draft. He eventually reached Triple-A – one step away from “The Show” – but an injury to his throwing shoulder eventually convinced him it was time to hang up his spikes.
Baseball took him all over the country, to 14 different leagues – West Coast Summer, Pac-12, Appalachian, Florida State, South Atlantic, Australian, Eastern, Southern, Carolina, New York-Pennsylvania, East, International, Arizona Complex, and Florida Complex leagues – in 28 different states and three countries.
And the one common thread, besides baseball? Coffee shops.
“We’d play every night and then have all morning to ourselves, usually in a hotel room,” said Brett. “So, we’d walk around whatever town we were in, grab a coffee, and sit down and enjoy it.”
Not only was he able to try different types of coffees, he also saw what different coffee shops did from a customer-service standpoint.
“Our goal is to put a smile on everybody’s face, and then give them the best product we can,” said Brett. “From the way we measure, the time it takes for the espresso to pull, the grams in which pulls, the grams of the syrup we put in, we weigh everything. So, every time you show up, you’re going to get the exact same cup of coffee.”
“And that’s what people have told us,” said Brittany, a Turlock High grad who earned a degree in psychology from Stanislaus State. “They like that we’re consistent.”
The couple started making coffee for their small church congregation after services, and that led to conversations about potentially starting a business. Their big break came in April 2024 when The Market asked them to sell coffee at its Saturday downtown event.
“They were having a market in two days and wanted us to pop up as a vendor,” she said.
Brett wanted to think it over; Brittany had a feeling they should go for it.
“We had nothing,” she said. “We stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m. finishing our cart and putting together our menu. It gave us that push to really start.”
They sold about 80 coffees that first day.
Now, the couple juggles raising young sons Duke and Stetson – a third child is due next month – with running a business, Brett’s full-time career as a firefighter with the City of Modesto while finishing up work toward his bachelor’s degree.
It takes a lot of coffee to keep going at that pace.
Grace & Gather serves Americano, cold brew, cappuccino, cortado, and espresso coffee, as well as a full complement of lattes (try the “Caramel by the Sea”) and teas, and pastries. There are also options for children.
