Necessity Coffee Opens Two New North County San Diego Cafés in 2026

Necessity Coffee founder Jon Runion opened two North County San Diego locations in the span of eight weeks this year, relocating his Encinitas café to 687 2nd Street in January and celebrating the grand opening of a second café at 250 North City Drive in San Marcos on March 7, 2026.

The San Marcos location carries a particular symmetry: the storefront at 250 North City Drive previously housed Copa Vida, where Runion worked for eight months in 2021 before leaving to start Necessity Coffee in an Encinitas alleyway wedged between a smog shop and a mechanic shop. Copa Vida vacated the North City space earlier this year, and Runion moved in. "I wasn't looking for two at the moment, but it was just such an amazing, awesome opportunity," Runion told Daily Coffee News. "One is a gift and two is amazing. To be a kid in his early 20s that's like, 'I think I want to start a coffee shop,' and 10 years later to have two cafes is just amazing to me."

The new Encinitas shop sits in the shade of a ficus tree on the corner of 2nd and F Streets, four blocks south of the original alleyway location. Both cafés share the brand's cream-and-coral palette with sage green accents and pull espresso on La Marzocco Linea EE AV machines, with a white Linea installed in Encinitas and a bright pink one anchoring the San Marcos bar. Menus at each location include drip coffee, pour over, vanilla lattes, flat whites, matcha, chai, loose-leaf tea, assorted pastries, and a rotating program of seasonal specialty drinks. Both shops run seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The North City grand opening on March 7 drew a crowd with a live DJ, giveaways, and a free drink for the first 50 guests in line, courtesy of North City. Darren Levitt, Principal of Sea Breeze Properties, the developer behind North City, offered the welcome directly: "We cannot wait to see our community come together over a great cup of coffee. Jon and his team are creating incredible coffee experiences as they expand throughout San Diego. They represent the homegrown, artisanal culinary experiences we are working to curate throughout North City."

Runion framed the back-to-back openings as a deliberate recalibration rather than a sprint toward further scale. "I want to just really be present in both cafes and really try to understand the community that I'm serving, and be a part of it," he said. "Two [cafes] feels like a really nice balance of my family life and being present in my cafes. It seems like a really sweet spot for me and I want to make these things thrive."

Necessity Coffee can be followed at @necessity.coffee for updates on both locations.