Our Story…

Steam Valve Espresso is a deaf and woman owned business, run by Cajal Rutti, a veteran old school trained barista with a love for single origins especially African varietals. She is a fiercely passionate individual who puts her heart and soul into Steam Valve. An engineer in mind and artist at heart, she loves working on machines of any kind and has a soft spot for espresso machines particularly the La Marzocco Strada MP.

I needed a job just like anyone else in DC and thought it a good start to apply to a coffee shop. Little did I know, I was stepping into a whole other world, the world of specialty coffee. Having to educate myself on the fly, I quickly fell in love with the simplicity and depth coffee had to offer.

I experienced a workplace who had never interacted with a deaf person directly and as a result, there were often miscommunication in which I had to advocate for myself. The workplace quickly shifted to adapt to communication needs. As a result, I was able to work my way up to management quickly.

Grateful for what the shop had done for me and the passion it gave me, I decided from that point on that I would extend that same courtesy of the coffee community to deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals by having my own shop. With my passion and love for specialty coffee, Steam Valve Espresso was born in 2021 along with my daughter.