Alameda Health System’s Highland Hospital Has a New Coffee Shop

The café, named Morning Rounds, will serve locally roasted Red Bay Coffee

The newest place to get a great cup of coffee in Oakland is Highland Hospital. The hospital is celebrating the grand opening of Morning Rounds, its on-premise café which serves locally roasted Red Bay Coffee and espresso drinks, premium teas, bakery treats and snacks. 

Morning Rounds is inside the lobby of the Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus near the main entrance on East 31st Street in Oakland. It operates from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Headquartered in Fruitvale, Oakland, Red Bay Coffee is a local roaster operating five coffee shops throughout the Bay Area and one coffee truck. In addition to roasting delicious artisanal coffee, Red Bay Coffee is also committed to being a vehicle for diversity, inclusion, social and economic restoration, and environmental sustainability. The company made headlines in 2020 when it appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s list of favorite things. 

“Because so many people want to support Black lives any way they can, we’ve found dozens of absolutely gorgeous gifts from Black-owned businesses that deserve to be celebrated, because we believe Black lives—and Black businesses—matter. So for 2020, most of my Favorite Things are from Black-owned or -led companies,” Winfrey wrote with the release of Oprah’s Favorite Things 2020.

Highland Hospital is operated by Alameda Health System, a community pillar organization that is Alameda County’s fourth largest employer and a major player in the local economy. 

“We do our best to keep our dollars local by working with local vendor-partners whenever possible. We are proud that our coffee shop serves Red Bay Coffee, a local small business that operates with values that align with our own,” said Highland Hospital CAO Mark Brown.

Before the opening of Morning Rounds, a good cup of coffee was hard to come by on the Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus. Of course, no one wants to end up in the hospital. But if you do, at least you won’t be without a morning Joe.

ALAMEDA HEALTH SYSTEM (AHS) is a leading public health care provider dedicated to caring, healing, teaching and serving all. AHS is a haven for the most vulnerable among us and an advocate for equitable, compassionate, and culturally sensitive care regardless of social and financial barriers. AHS is a vanguard of medical excellence, with a teaching hospital that draws the nation’s best medical students. As one of Alameda County’s 15 largest employers, AHS is a major economic power providing more than 5,100 jobs and contributing nearly $560 million annually in salaries, wages and benefits. AHS is also home to more than 760 physicians across the nine facilities within the health system. Since 1864, AHS has served the East Bay’s health care needs. For more information, visit AlamedaHealthSystem.org.

SOURCE: Alameda Health System

Are you a coffee lover and not in the Oakland, California, area? Red Bay Coffee is available for purchase online, along with some pretty dope accessories for the coffee enthusiast. Here’s what we have our eyes on: