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INDIGENOUS INDUSTRY: Epiphany of BeansFirst published in the Winter 2014 edition of Edible East EndComment | November 26, 2013 | By Brian Halweil | Photographs by Lindsay Morris
Long Island’s largest roaster blazes new ground with a café at Stony Brook Universityand a new pour-over bar.
It is fitting the new Hampton Coffee Company shop in Southampton is in a former MiniCooper dealership, a place where customers ogled enticing machines and test-drove anew life accessory. Stocked with Chemex flasks, glass-tubed Japanese vacuum brewersand other caffeine-delivering paraphernalia against an urban-rustic backdrop withdistressed wood walls, a palette of dark grays and leather couches, the java shop borrowsa page from the design book of Stumptown Coffee on 29th Street or Toby’s Estate onNorth 6th in Williamsburg. Beckoning coffee lovers—the new and the seasoned, theserious and the curious—is exactly the point.
Consider the grease-clad mechanic from another nearby car dealership who came in for acuppa, sat mesmerized as a barista demonstrated a pour-over brewing and, later thatevening, returned with his wife to stock up for their newly coffee-centric home. “That’swhy we call this the coffee experience store,” says Jason Belkin, the garrulous owner ofthe Hampton Coffee Company. “People come in and they have these epiphanies,” saysroastmaster Dwight Amade, who compares the “explosion of coffee education” in the lastfive years to the growing American enthusiasm for wine and beer.
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As appreciation of coffee in the U.S. continues to surge, the small fraternity of coffeeroasters on Long Island has enjoyed recent growth: Java Nation, after decamping fromSag Harbor, expanded its Bridgehampton roasting room, and its wholesale business tookoff; Long Island Coffee Roasters, birthed at Love Lane Kitchen in Mattituck, moved up-island to a larger space; Thunderbird Roasters continues to turn out beans on theShinnecock Reservation.
But none have grown more than the Hampton Coffee Company, originally founded inWater Mill in 1994, when there was just one Starbucks on the island. (Today there aremore than 70 Starbucks in Suffolk and Nassau counties.) Now Long Island’s largestroaster, HCC is handling more beans than ever before—more than 2,000 pounds a weekto supply its locations in Westhampton Beach and Water Mill as well as grocers (fromKing Kullen to IGA), restaurants (from Nick & Toni’s to Maidstone to Stone Creek Inn),shops and farm stands (Cavaniola’s Gourmet and Serene Green Farm Stand), in additionto Southampton Hospital, Long Island MacArthur Airport and the Long Island Ducksbaseball stadium. Bridgehampton National Bank regularly features owner Jason Belkinand his wife, Theresa, in their local business ad campaign.
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And they are poised for even more growth. This fall, Hampton Coffee Company openedits first licensee location, an espresso bar on the college campus of SUNY Stony Brook,an account they won after two years of screening, tastings and interviews with schoolofficials looking for a locally owned roaster. (Starbucks also operates on campus.) Namedthe Hampton Coffee Company Corner Café, it is run by HCC uniform-wearing studentsand operates in the brand new West Side Dining building, 8,000 square feet of green-tinted glass on the residential side of campus that includes a dumpling bar, aninternational deli and a barbecue. “The kids are eating well, and now they have greatcoffee to go with it,” says roastmaster Dwight Amade, who created Wolffie’s blend,named after the school’s mascot.
The growth has allowed the Hampton Coffee Company to do what they want to do—coffee—that much better. Consider Ric Sriwijaya, a Sumatran coffee grower who has soldthem beans for years. When he visits, they have taken him to lunch and put him up in thehotel. Now they can host him at their own facility, where he can meet more easily withtheir staff and chitchat with customers. “We wanted to have a conference room. Wewanted a place to entertain wholesale clients and growers. We needed some garage doorsso we can pull the truck in and not get soaking wet. We needed a workbench so Dwightcould fix machines and not do it in his garage at home,” says Belkin. The shop has hostedteam-building tastings for the international bank UBS and the Greek Orthodox church ofSouthampton.
The expansion has given them the means to work with more small growers like Ric, fromCosta Rica or Tanzania. And because customers are more interested than ever in thestory behind their beans, Hampton Coffee Company can offer a roaster’s blend thatpeople will want to try and pay more for.
As the company outgrew their Water Mill space, the once-featured roaster got buriedbehind an expanding kitchen, lunch tables and catering trays. They started receivingaccolades for their muffins and breakfast burritos—the Southampton location featurespumpkin bread pudding and Nutella brownies that have lured customers from as far asEast Hampton. “People were forgetting that we were about coffee,” says Belkin, addingthat they were the first roaster in the region and one of the first on the East Coast.
Now, in Southampton, the roasting room doors are strategically placed so it’s one of thefirst things customers see upon entering the store. Still, a full-blown bean session isn’tmandatory.
Sensitive that “coffee snob” is now an expression, Belkin appreciates customers who justwant a classic cup and a scone while working on their laptop. “We have no coffee
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prejudice here,” he says. But if you want to study a map of Costa Rica, see the beansroasting and learn how Chemex works, they can deliver that, too.
And while Belkin and Amade are wary of coffee trends, “it’s the hipster takeover,” Amadejokes, they aren’t averse to technology. Hamptons Coffee Company maintains activesocial media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. And, in response to the spikein households with automatic Keurig machines, they will be selling their coffee in K-Cupsstarting Thanksgiving weekend. The company has a coffee truck that hits street fairs andfestivals, including more than 100 charity events on the East End each year. In addition,Amade is experimenting with bottling his own cold-brew coffee, aiming for a release nextsummer, in convenient six-packs for the beach or a Long Island wine tour. With thisluxury of space, Amade has been talking to other local roasters about a baristathrowdown here.
“Coffee is really special,” says Belkin. Not just because of recent publicity as anantioxidant-rich beverage that can ward off the symptoms of dementia. But also becauseit’s a crop that only grows in the thin band of the planet between the tropics of Cancerand Capricorn and so connects us to the health of rainforests. It also connects us topeople. Belkin theorizes that more than 100 hands have participated in a coffee bean’sjourney from farm to his store—families harvest it, mill it, wash and dry and sort it,donkeys transport it to ships, and truckers bring it to Long Island. “Each of those peopledepends on our company,” he says. Amade follows the coffee chain even closer to home.“And me and my family depend on it and your drinking it, so we can make a living. Andfinally the huge dependability is we depend on it to get us going,” Amade says and takes asip of piping hot java.
Brian Halweil is the editor of Edible East End.
About Brian Halweil
Brian is the editor of Edible East End, and co-publisher of Edible Long Island,Edible Manhattan, and Edible Brooklyn. He writes from his home in SagHarbor, New York, where he and his family tend a home garden and orchard,and keep ducks and oysters.
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Tags: coffee, Dwight Amade, Hampton Coffee Company, Jason Belkin,Java Nation, Long Island Coffee Roasters, Love Lane Kitchen, StonyBrook University, Thunderbird Roasters
Categories: Drink, Indigenous Industry, People, Roasters, Winter 2014
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