By KAREN SHOFFNNER
Recorder Staff
SUNDERLAND - You could get gourmet coffee all over the valley.
But you couldn't get it at a drive-thru. Until now.
Two Amherst natives have just opened The Java Hut on Route 116
where they'll dispense coffee in all manners and varieties, tea,
muffins, bagels and deli sandwiches through and old bank building
drive-thru window. This is Sean and Darren Pierce's second coffee
retail venture. The brothers run a Java Hut kiosk at the Newman
Center at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Sean, 30, said he and Darren, 28, came up with the idea of a
gourmet coffee drive-thru before anyone else in the area to set
themselves apart from other coffee shops. Sean, who lives in
Cliffside Apartments, said they had always wanted to do a gourmet
drive-thru, so he thought they vacant Heritage Bank building with its
drive-up window was just right when he saw it last August.
Reminders of the 2.000-square-foot space's former life as a bank -
a motion detector, a silent alarm in a drive-thru window drawer and some
bullet-proof glass in the drive-up window - cased Sean to observe, "This
is the safest coffee shop pin Massachusetts."
If you feel like slowing down a little, you can go indoors and eat,
drink, watch TV or examine the artwork on view.
Once they get an entertainment license, the brothers plan on having
open mike nights for local musicians. They also want to have
poetry reading at the cafe. Sean said open mikes devoted to music
would be acoustic with minimal use of amplifiers.
Those whose creativity finds full flower in bathroom can run riot
with chalk in the cafe's bathrooms
|
because the walls are covered with blackboard paint.
The wall behind the counter is also painted over with blackboard pain on
which menu items are written. But one section is given over to
art. Each month, the drawing will change, the brothers said.
All the work on the cafe - from the oak bar counter to the painting
- was done by the Pierces with help from friends. A menu board
made of stained glass was made by a friend.
The Pierces, co-owners of Pierce Brothers Gourmet Distributors,
began wholesale distribution of Jeremiah's Pick coffee in the valley.
The brothers have an exclusive deal with the San Francisco-based coffee
maker and distribute the coffee to local establishments. "If
people ask, we can honestly say that we carry our own coffee," Darren
said, Coffee flavors available include hazelnut, chocolate orange, kona
macadamia, vanilla, zabaria (an east African blend) and fog buster
("dark like French roast, but smooth").
Sean said they went into retail when they realized they weren't
going to make it strictly as wholesalers. They opened their kiosk
at UMass in 1996.
A Pierce brothers longtime friend has confidence in the brothers'
new venture. Mark Plourde said he has known the brothers for 20
years. "With the number of students in the complexes there's a
definite built-in clientele. In Sunderland, the operating cost is
a lot less. They could have moved to downtown Amherst and paid
outrageous rents and had fierce competition."
Sean said they use the brothers who own Northampton's Haymarket as
their models. "We're trying to do what they do. They put
their hear into it."
The cafe is open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Darren said, they're thinking of
being closed Sunday, but they are otherwise open Monday through
Saturday. |
