the Team

Meet the People Behind Sawdust & Espresso

Sawdust & Espresso is built and run by Rob and Christine Branscum on their half acre in Walla Walla, where they are restoring buildings from the historic Hell’s Half Acre into a working woodshop and comfort food drive-thru. Rob is a lifelong woodworker who learned the craft from his grandfather, a master craftsman who taught him that anything worth building should be built to last. After retiring from a 27-year law enforcement career due to injury, he returned to the shop to build not just products, but a new chapter. Christine brings years of warehouse, logistics, and operations experience, along with the determination and steady leadership that keeps the project moving forward. Together, they’re combining decades of skill, hard work, and long-held dreams into something they can share with their community.
Their partnership was forged during a difficult season, when they met while working toward sobriety. The road forward wasn’t perfect, but in 2018 they found lasting recovery and began rebuilding their lives side by side — renovating their home, weathering health challenges and loss, celebrating family, and learning to build nearly everything with their own hands. This project is the culmination of that journey: part woodshop, part coffee and comfort food window, and part promise to themselves that it’s never too late to start over and create something meaningful. They’re documenting the process openly — the wins, the setbacks, and everything in between — and inviting others to follow along as Sawdust & Espresso comes back to life.