New owner for Red Rock Cafe New owner for Red Rock Cafe (September 02, 2005)

Christian group plans upgrades, but no evangelism

By Jenny Baer

The Red Rock Cafe, once a hangout for the Raging Grannies and a performance spot for folk singer Joan Baez, was recently purchased by the HighWay Community, a non-denominational Christian church whose headquarters is in the same building above the cafe.

The Mountain View-based HighWay Community began about five years ago as an alternative worship service at the First Baptist Church of Los Altos, designed to "reflect the look and feel of Generation X," according to the group's Web site. It has since become a separate ministry with a wider audience. Its services, held Sundays at Palo Alto High School's Haymarket Theatre, draw from 400 to 500 people, church leaders said.

Although the atmosphere at Red Rock has changed and the menu is slightly different, the manager stresses that no aspect of the new coffee shop is meant to directly promote the church or Christianity in general.

"The goal is not to evangelize the community through Red Rock. The goal is to be a place for people to hang out. A coffee shop is the saloon of previous generations where people can hang out and get along," said Red Rock's new manager, Howie Smith.

The HighWay Community closed the deal on Red Rock in early August, when they bought it from Yeun Sook Kim.

"We got to know Ms. Kim because we worked upstairs and it just kind of came out of our friendship," said the HighWay Community's creative director, Kevin Marks, who doubts that Kim looked around for other offers before selling the business.

There has been some turnover in the staff, but Smith says he offered all employees the chance to return.

Funds from Red Rock will not go to support the HighWay Community, according to church leaders. Instead, they say, the church is looking into making the coffee shop a nonprofit organization, thereby pumping funds back into the Mountain View community through endeavors such as sponsoring Little League teams. "We wanted to make sure that the money never comes back to the church," Marks said.
E-mail Jenny Baer at jbaer@mv-voice.com

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