Barracuda Coffee Co. is back. 

With a widely-shared social media post on July 7 and a new banner above its Van Giesen Street storefront, the north Richland coffee shop favorite announced its return after previously being acquired by a Pasco-based coffee roaster at the end of 2024. 

Owner Jake Shupe confirmed to the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business that he is back at the espresso machine along with some of the coffee shop’s longtime staff. They are again slinging some of the shop’s signature drinks, such as the Fou Sel Caramel, and working to reconnect with the community. 

“I think it was a situation where the community didn’t know what it had and neither did we,” Shupe said. 

Ahava Coffee, which started in 2020 with a mobile coffee kiosk before upgrading to coffee stands and then a brick-and-mortar shop on Burden Boulevard in Pasco, brewed coffee beans for Barracuda before buying the business and reopening it under the Ahava name in February.  

Ahava shared social media posts from the shop at 2171 Van Giesen St., highlighting its own signature drinks and offerings, as recently as mid-June.  

Shupe declined to provide details about what led Barracuda to return to the shop or why Ahava decided to leave except to say, “it didn’t work out.” 

Cameron Robbins, one of Ahava’s co-owners, did not return requests for comment from the Journal. 

Barracuda was a fixture on Van Giesen just east of the intersection with the Highway 240 bypass since 2003. Shupe bought it in 2009. He expanded to a second shop at 320 Kellogg St. in Kennewick and had a mobile trailer before selling the Kennewick location to a former Barracuda employee in 2021. 

Shupe said he was burned out after running Barracuda for 17 years, citing the challenges in running a small business, when he sold the coffee shop to Ahava. He was ready for a break and to try something else. 

There is one big difference with this reincarnated Barracuda, though. Shupe has partnered with local business owner Kara Vogt.  

Vogt opened The Village Bistro in 2016 in Kennewick before opening d. lynne’s boutique several years later. Both are now located at the Marineland Shopping Center at Edison Street and Clearwater Avenue in Kennewick. She bought Eatz Pizzeria on Argent Road in Pasco about a year ago. 

“We wouldn’t be able to do this without Kara,” Shupe said, adding that he and Barracuda’s staff will be at the forefront of bringing back the spirit of Barracuda. 

Vogt told the Journal that her role will be more on Barracuda’s management side. And she said she wouldn’t have done it without Shupe and his wife and co-owner Michelle being on board. 

“I wanted Barracuda to be restored to what it was,” Vogt said. “To do that, it’s essential they are part of it.” 

Both Vogt and Jake Shupe said that reviving Barracuda wasn’t planned but the enthusiastic community response has shown it was the right decision. 

The coffee shop’s Facebook post about the reopening garnered more than 600 reactions, 200 comments and 85 shares, many that same day. Nearly all the comments expressed joy and thankfulness for Barracuda’s return. And there were those already asking whether their favorite drinks would also be back. 

The overwhelmingly positive response has made Jake Shupe excited to again be a part of people’s morning routines or midday pick-me-ups. And Vogt said seeing how people reacted in the shop drove home that Barracuda needed to return. 

“You should have seen it,” Vogt said of the coffee shop on that first day. “Customers were hugging each other. They were so happy it was back.”