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.
The Baristas launched on January 31st, 2011. New episodes are posted every Monday at 10 AM (EST). When they’re not living on-camera, the characters are on Twitter, where you can eavesdrop on their sarcasm, their sex lives and their bad ideas.
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!
Justin still lives in Baltimore, but the rest of the show’s cast and crew live and work in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Baristas is filmed at the Affogato coffee bar, which is open for business daily. Stop in and tell Victoria (the owner) that The Baristas sent you!
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.
