The Original Diesel Love Story – Meeting Jennifer Park Prelude: My Diesel Love Story is impossible to put to words. Diesel has meant everything to me in my adult life. Not only has it been a dream job, it has brought me most of things that mean something to me. For example, I met my totally dreamy wife behind these counters …
Certain Something Special Had Begun May 28, 1999, the day before diesel first opened its doors was my 23rd birthday. I spent it helping to tackle the endless to-do list Tucker had carefully written out on a massive sheet of butcher paper. As I tightened bolts on the small round tables and arranged cups in …
Marriage Meetings For fourteen years — 2002 through 2016 – I was appointed as a Justice of the Peace for the City of Somerville and over those years officiated just over 400 weddings. I was lucky enough to have been a JP in those particularly joyous days when same sex marriage was approved in Massachusetts. …
Felicia’s Amazing Diesel Inspired Art
A Life Richer Shortly after moving to Somerville and leaving an unsatisfying job, I found myself working at Diesel. I immediately felt uplifted by the vibrancy and high energy at my new job, surrounded by multitalented, hilarious, & hardworking coworkers, and by the devoted customers who made Diesel a part of their everyday. Moving to …
My Diesel Love Story is that I love the place so much that my save screen on my phone is of my two checking out the photo booth!
Pure Gratitude I’ve written so many editions of this love story, since I seem to have so many love stories to share. But the overarching similarity between them all is pure gratitude. I moved to Boston fresh out of college, and like so many who wandered through, I had no idea what I wanted to …
Enjoying Life. My first memory of Diesel is carrying my newborn daughter in a baby bjorn, facing outwards, to see the new coffee shop that had opened days earlier. It was apparently on a tragic mission to survive across the street from Starbucks, and for that alone it had my respect. My daughter had been …
Big, Bold Ideas Diesel is so much more than a café – it is a home to civic artisans, social architects and values engineers. It is a space that welcomes big, bold ideas. I vividly recall this past summer, when dozens of committed and curious constituents of the Massachusetts 7th District crowded in Diesel to …
Group of Weirdos Hello Diesel and happy 20th birthday! I vividly remember when Diesel opened when I was a teenager and friends going to check it out on the weekends. I thought what is this place? I eventually became a customer, had a art show there then a few years later became a employee. To …
Saturday Morning Breakfast Dear Diesel,My moms have taken me to you for longer than I remember. I have so many memories from growing up with you as a part of my life. Being afraid of the halloween decorations. Going downstairs and being amazed that there was a whole other world underground. Taking photos with my …
So Many Friends and Loves
Thanks a Latte In September 1999 one of my best friends (Mónica) and I moved to Somerville. We were fresh out of undergrad and trying to figure out our way in Boston. We were overwhelmed, optimistic, naive, excited, and felt the blessing and curse of new adulthood on our shoulders. We walked into Davis Square …
Slinging Lattes and Monkey Wrenches Just before falling head over heals in love with the love of my life, I was lucky enough to be part of the Diesel family. Slinging lattes and monkey wrenches along side some really lovely people made me feel at home in a new land. To this day, I consider Diesel to be …
Really Big Important Things I started working at Diesel in the Spring of 2013. I had packed one suitcase and taken a train from Rochester to Boston, one way. I had recently broken up with my boyfriend in NY, and what had at first been amicable turned violent. I was left broken, scared, lost and …
Changed Forever Diesel will always be a huge part of my life. It was there that I met the love of my life. I was new to the online dating world and decided a coffee shop was a safe place to meet someone online. It was April 16, 2011 that I would walk into Diesel …
So, So Happy EDITOR’S NOTE: All 4 members of the Branch-Tomsho family wrote Diesel Love Stories. Read them all!
My Deep, Queer, Freak Face “I work at Diesel”, I was always proud to say. As well as, of course, “No, not the clothing company.” “We are more – queer as in fuck you and less gay as in designer jeans”, I’d tell people in the era of my life that orbited Diesel Cafe. …
My Life is a Diesel Love Story Writing my wedding vows was easier than writing my Diesel Love story. Vows are just for one person. But this, writing about MY DIESEL LOVE STORY, is just so big and so vast and so so so incredibly deep. There is not a place I turn in my life that the four walls …
Sounds of Our Daily Life I was a 23 year-old queer kid moving from rural North Carolina to Boston when I first stepped foot in Diesel just 2 weeks after the café opened. Little did I know that Diesel would be providing more than a much needed break from a frustrating apartment search. Like for …
Great Friendships Forged (Get it?) i met my best friend because of diesel cafe. despite the fact that we both had gone to the same university, hung around the same kind of academic circles and friend groups, and had a lot of the same interests, we didn’t formally meet until we were both working behind …
57 Years of Memories The hardest part for me about writing this Diesel Love Story is that there isn’t necessarily a story: stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. I’m an English teacher now, I get to know that. And my story, of the real, meaningful, lasting friendships that came from working at Diesel Cafe only has a …
A Magical, Percussive Dance Dear Diesel, It’s hard to overstate the importance this place has had in my life. There isn’t a whole lot that you weren’t a part of in some way or another. I started working at Diesel during my last year of college when I was 23. I worked for about six …
Diesel Was My First Home I have always had a deep fondness for cafes because at their root they exist to cultivate community. In 2007, I had just graduated from college in upstate NY, was moving to Boston where my sister lived, and looking to work at a cafe. When visiting my sister in Boston, …
Magic happens at the Diesel, all the time. The book of love is long and boring And written very long ago It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes And things we’re all too young to know” – “The Book of Love”, by The Magnetic Fields “I could write a whole book of love centered at …
Back For More… I’m one of the “back for more” employees! Worked there in 2000? 2001? Moved away and then when I moved back and went to grad school (with Russo!) worked there again around 2005-2006? Those shifts at Diesel were not only a needed antidote to the stress of thesis-writing and social work internships, …
Want to Go to Diesel? Sometimes on Saturday mornings my mama wakes me up and says, “Do you want to go to diesel?” I think, “I’ll get to have a brioche egg sandwich and maybe orange juice!” and I put my clothes on as quick as I can. I also like raspberry lime rickeys and …
Friendship Bracelets When I pretended to leave last spring, I thought that it was Diesel and my time committed to its service that contributed to my burnout—in actuality it was the very essence that was keeping me (and has kept me) spiritually alive through this MA experience— I don’t think it’s a secret that my …
Diesel has piece of my heart…. after moving cross country to Boston I quickly learned about Diesel Cafe. I would spend hours there working on lesson plans, playing pool with coworkers and crushing on the adorable staff. The summer before starting graduate school I finally built up the courage to apply to work at Diesel. …
A Refuge and a Home I’ve started so many of these notes now, but I don’t know how to sum up my “Diesel love story” besides… Diesel is my family. From pilgrimages in college, to visits back now, Diesel has always been a refuge and a home to me. So much of who I am, …
Diesel Is My Family As I sat down to write this love letter to Diesel, I became overwhelmed with sentiment. Though, short and sweet, it’s all pretty simple: Diesel is my family. I took a job there back in my mid-20s, thinking it would be a fun place to work with some cool queer kids …
The Best Love Story I lived in Davis sq for 10 years and was a regular at diesel! One of my favorite places. We will always remember the exact table we sat at on a rainy night in May, two years ago Now, it holds the most special place in my heart because it is …
All Love and Blind Support
Story Time I Guess When I moved to Massachusetts when I was 7 (15 years ago, OMG), my parents would often come to Diesel after work on Tuesdays, and hang out with their big group of friends that always showed up. It would give me time to play pool, eat one of your plate sized …
Diesel Love Stories 