![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/timesofsandiego.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SpilltheBeans_Ube-Bagel-scaled.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>Photo by Dave Schwab\/Times of San Diego<\/p>\nJones and Nerat explained that the new franchise they created was an outgrowth of another of their restaurants, The Smoking Gun. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make a little sister restaurant, but the space there was too big for a coffee and bagels place,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to expand the brand that we developed downtown,\u201d noted Nerat, adding they wanted to find a new location \u201cdrawing morning traffic\u201d because they were \u201cpassionate\u201d about wanting to serve freshly-made bagels with roasted coffee.<\/p>\n
At Spill The Beans, even the company\u2019s business name is inventive. Jones talked about how their moniker came about. Turns out, it just sort of happened. \u201cWe were having trouble finding a coffee name that wasn\u2019t trademarked,\u201d he said, adding their future new name just popped up one night when they overheard a newscaster referring to sources \u2018spilling the beans\u2019 in a court case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when the light bulb went on,\u201d Jones noted, adding that phrase paired perfectly with their downtown eatery called The Smoking Gun.<\/p>\n
Nerat added that the new business name worked well with their existing branding.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrganic growth has always been at the heart of our discussions,\u201d noted Nerat. \u201cIt was important for us to not to grow too quickly, to grow within our limits. What was most important to me was to operate to the best of our ability \u2014 but never sacrificing quality. That can happen with the more stores you have if you\u2019re not careful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both restaurant owners talked about the advantages of having a drive-thru in Ocean Beach, which proved invaluable their first year in business. \u201cWe get lots of locals walking up amid people just wanting to drive through,\u201d said Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique concept,\u201d agreed Nerat about their drive-thru, which he characterized as being of a \u201cpit-stop\u201d style. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea is it\u2019s not a box that you order from, going to a single window, then picking up your order. We want to have every opportunity to have a conversation with our customers. Our team members go right up to people in their cars, asking them how their day is. We wanted to create a fun vibe as people wait for their order. It also made sense for us to position ourselves and our business as part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re locally owned, roasted and toasted,\u201d quipped Jones about their fit with Ocean Beach. \u201cWe are members of the community,\u201d he said. \u201cOur kids play in Little League here and go to local schools. We\u2019re just blessed to be in Ocean Beach, where we love and adore other businesses like Pomas Deli, OB Noodle House, the Sunshine Company Saloon and Hodad\u2019s. These are some of the most storied locally owned venues in San Diego. It\u2019s been a dream come true for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spill The Beans Ocean Beach will be hosting a community party celebrating their first anniversary on a soon-to-be-determined date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Co-owned by longtime full-service restaurateurs Dave Jones and Connor Nerat, Spill The Beans is the business duo\u2019s fifth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":886120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,169971,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-886119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-san-diego","tag-sandiego","tag-spill-the-beans","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116796864080516487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=886119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}