Jonathan Volzke's New Job to Keep Him from Hosting Coffee Chat

Originally posted at 12:57 p.m. July 8, 2014. Edited to correct the current meeting place for Coffee Chat.

It’s the end of an era: After more than 15 years hosting a weekly rap session to talk about local issues, the founder of San Juan Capistrano’s “Coffee Chat” will play host for the last time this Friday.

Jonathan Volzke, who started the weekly get-together when he was editor of the Capo Valley News and continued on when he launched the Capistrano Dispatch, has taken a new job that will keep him from town on Friday mornings, he told Patch.

“I start as the public information manager at Santa Margarita Water District later this month,” Volzke said. “The job is 8 to 5-plus, so my new duties will not allow me to continue hosting Coffee Chat.”

Friday will be the last Volkze-hosted Coffee Chat. The informal group meets at 8 a.m. at Mission Grill.

That’s not to say it’s the end of Coffee Chat, Volzke added. He expects a rotation of hosts to join long-time cohost Erin Kutnick, “ likely Eric Bergstrom, Steve Behmerwohld, Mark Bodenhamer, John Gillotti, Tom Scott and others.”

Coffee Chat regularly attracts a couple dozen local residents to get an "inside baseball" discussion on hot-button issues. 

Volzke left the Dispatch, the now biweekly paper he founded, in March 2012 to join Faubel Public Affairs, a public affairs firm in Lake Forest, which has since become Communications Labs.

“After more than 15 years, Coffee Chat is a great tradition in the town and so many wonderful folks who joined the discussion each Friday have truly become friends,” Volzke said.