BREMERTON — For 20 years, Bay Street Coffee Company has been running what barista Isaak Hammers called “our little empire on this corner.”

Hammers, who began working for Bay Street Coffee in 1997, just one year after it first opened, said despite the saturated market, their drive-through stand has been “plugging away and holding our own.”

And starting Oct. 17, they will kick off their 20th anniversary with a week-long celebration.

“We’re celebrating the whole week, starting on Monday the 17th,” owner Kim Melton said. “We’re going to have daily drawings, either gift baskets or gift cards. Any customer that drives through, with a purchase, gets a chance to win.”

Then, on Friday, Oct. 21, 20-ounce drinks will be 20 percent off for their 20th anniversary.

For those 20 years, the same family has owned and operated the business.

“Bay Street was actually my brother-in-law’s and his wife’s stand, and they built it from the ground up in 1996,” Melton said.

Their coffee is unique, too, picked out by Lin Melton, one of the original owners.

“Lin was really good about knowing what that area would like,” Melton said. “Lin actually picked out the blend of coffee. She went through hours of samples and tasting. The coffee blend that Bay Street has, nobody else has. It’s Bay Street’s own coffee blend.”

Melton and her husband Ray bought the stand just last year from Ray’s brother, Jim Melton.

“In 2009, Lin passed away from cancer,” Melton recalled. “Last year, Jim decided he wanted to sell it, but he was afraid to sell it to just anybody. He was afraid someone would come in, clean out everybody and start fresh.”

So Kim and Ray Melton bought it, guaranteeing to keep the staff.

“(The baristas are) the ones who make Bay Street,” she said, explaining that there’s a combined 60-plus years of experience among the baristas.

“Before we bought it, the employees always thought it just felt like a family. Everybody felt like they were all part of a family, the owners and the employers too, and we are trying to keep that same family feeling in the company.”

Indeed, when asked to describe what it’s like to work for the company, Hammer’s first response was, “It’s very much a family environment.”

“We’ve all kind of grown up together,” he added. “The whole crew is a long-time group of people. Our newest girl has been here four years. Our next newest, 14 years.”

He said that loyal, steady group is part of what makes the whole place work.

“We all enjoy our company and we all enjoy doing this,” he said. “It makes it easy to do this every day.”

Lela Hlavaty, the barista who’s been there 14 years, agreed.

“We’ve all been here for a really long time. We enjoy each other and the job and the different customers that we get,” Hlavaty said. “I think we’ve all toyed with the idea of doing other things, (but) never left or always came back.”

Melton said the secret of their success was definitely “the coffee and the staff.”

“I would say the staff on top of everything else,” she said. “Our customers come in, they know their names, they know what drink they’re going to have, they talk to them about what’s going on with their families.

“They’ve been there so long, they just know what they’re doing, they know who their customers are and they’re just great baristas.

“The experience they all have just makes them great. I think we have the best baristas in Washington.”