About The Baristas

The Baristas: Cast Photo
The Baristas
is a coffee shop comedy set in the suburbs of Pittsburgh.

Ben, Dierdre, Sam, Madison and Gary are the are the friendly faces who pour your decaf, pull your espresso shots and put up with all your problems. Tip them well; they’ve earned it.

Before the Baristas…

… there was the long-running web sitcom Something to Be Desired (2003-2009), created and produced by Justin Kownacki and nominated for a 2008 Yahoo! Video Award for Best Web Series.  When Justin relocated from Pittsburgh to Baltimore in 2009, STBD was put on permanent hiatus.  But the cast’s creative spark never faded, and in autumn of 2010 the comedy-starved fans of STBD donated over $3000 to a Kickstarter project intended to help the old show launch a new spinoff — and thus The Baristas was born!

The Baristas launched on January 31st, 2011 and ran through late 2011, when the real-life Affogato coffee bar it was filmed in (after hours) was sold and closed permanently. The characters once lived on Twitter, where you could eavesdrop on their sarcasm, their sex lives and their many bad ideas. They’ve been quiet for years now, but their tweets live on.

You can watch all 20 episodes of The Baristas on YouTube.

The Baristas creator Justin Kownacki can be contacted here.

Photo (L to R): Ben (Will McMahon), Aubrey (Katie Mo Goff), Dierdre (Lacey Fleming), Madison (Jillian Vitko), Gary (Joel Ambrose), Astrid (Laura Lee Brautigam), Sam (Shaun Starke).  Photo by Rob de la Cretaz.