FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS
Sunday Service Motor Co. combines coffee, beer and bikes
Sunday Service Motor Co. is Albuquerque’s triple threat. The business, located at 2701 Fourth St. NW, brews its own craft beers, roasts its own coffee, and has a community garage for motorcycle owners to work on their beloved rides. Kevin Anderson and Stephen Park opened its doors in November 2022.
“We really kind of stuck with this idea of a coffee shop, brewery and motorcycle shop,” Anderson said. “We’ve really kind of looked at this as having three vessels for us to promote and build community and an area for collaboration. And those three vessels are coffee, beer and motorcycles. And so really that goal of just having an awesome space that people can come in and enjoy really good beer, they can come in and enjoy awesome coffee, and also if you’re into motorcycles, you’re gonna have a space where you can share those ideas and bounce ideas off other people.”
Born and raised in Albuquerque, Anderson and Park have been friends since elementary school. As adults, Anderson stayed in Albuquerque and Park moved to Denver after their graduation from the University of New Mexico. The friends would later meet up again in Atlanta.
“We were both trying to work our way back to Albuquerque and coming back for a trip, Christmas of 2020,
I was looking around and I’m just blown away by how much progression there had been on both the beer side and the coffee side,” Anderson said. “And, I’ve always been passionate about beer. Steve likes it a lot and he’s always been passionate about coffee. And I like coffee a lot … I recognize how much amazing, awesome talent there is in Albuquerque in both of those areas. There weren’t a lot of places that had those things in one area … We realized that Albuquerque was just building this really awesome community.”
Sunday Service Motor Co. currently has two of its staple craft beers on tap, a coffee porter and a cream ale. It will soon offer a collaboration blonde ale it created with locals Vision City Brewstillery.
“The long-run goal of our space really is for collaboration,” Anderson said. “We’ll have our standards on tap, we’ll have a collaboration that’s between us and another brewery, and then that other brewery, we’re going to feature three of their beers on tap moving forward … We did a collaboration with Vision City … After that, we have a collaboration that’s getting scheduled with ReSource Brewing (Co.). And then we have one with Steel Bender (Brewyard). And I’m in conversations with a couple others … Right now we do feature a couple other beer styles from Steel Bender, Ex Novo (Brewing Co.), and Santa Fe (Brewing Co.). We kind of try to hit all the different beer styles that people would want.”
Great care and quality goes into the coffee side as well.
“We roast all the coffee with our partnership with Albuquerque Garden Company,” Park said. “ABQ Garden Co. is a roaster, but they actually reside in our space. Their coffee roaster is in our coffee shop. We work hand in hand with them on roasting all of our coffee and it is a specialty coffee shop, so we’re very involved in that process. But really, it comes down to making sure that all three of our ideas from coffee to beer to motorcycles are really of the highest quality. Kevin and I make sure that we have our hands and our eyes on everything and ensure that the product that goes out into the market is really the best product that we can offer.”
On the motorcycle side, the garage is a space where people can gather, learn and work on their bikes.
“We don’t carry parts, we don’t provide service, we’re not a mechanic shop,” Park explained. “It’s a community garage. So what we provide for our customers is tools. We have two large air lifts for motorcycles, as well as a tire machine. So a couple of things that you typically wouldn’t have in your home garage. That’s really the benefit … The other benefit to our customers is just sharing knowledge about motorcycles and we also have an on-site mechanic. He’s not really there to work on your bike, he’s really there to kind of guide you and help you work on your own bike. He’s been a wealth of knowledge and the folks that we’re attracting to the garage are people who want to learn and want to work on their own stuff.”
Locals are not only drawn to Sunday Service Motor Co. for its craft beer, coffee and garage, but also for its events including instructed painting lessons, motorcycle rallies, trivia nights and a Shop Small Sunday popup event held the last Sunday of each month. Event information can be found at sundayservicemoto.com or on its Facebook and Instagram platforms @sundayservicemoto.
“It’s been absolutely fantastic,” Anderson said of the community’s response. “We have gotten a lot of great regulars within the neighborhood and within walking distance. We’ve gotten great feedback from people that are really excited there’s a watering hole, there’s a place for good coffee and a work-from-home space. The motorcycle community is really showing up as well. … On the beer side of the house, local brewers and other breweries really come in and help support it as much as they can. And it’s been very encouraging.”