With roughly a week to go before a June 14 ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of Shearwater Coffee Bar in The Brick Walk shopping plaza in Fairfield, the store was still a work in progress. But curiosity seekers were already flowing in for their favorite caffeinated beverages, according to store manager Jason Varga.
“People seem to be really psyched about it,” he said, adding that many new customers are the spillover from Milkcraft, the popular creamery that is Shearwater”™s next-door neighbor. “They have lines out the door all of the time, so people were kind of sticking their heads in to see what was new.”
Ed Freedman, the coffee bar”™s owner, said his two-year search for the right site for his first retail venture was worth the time expended. “This has kind of become the hub of Fairfield, with the foot traffic here,” he said of Kleban Properties”™ Post Road shopping center, which is also home to independently owned restaurants and boutiques. “There are a lot of people coming here from lunchtime through after dinner every day. In the morning, there are people that work here and they are all getting to know that we are here.”
Many coffee lovers already know Freedman”™s products through Shearwater Organic Coffee Roasters in Trumbull, Fairfield County”™s only USDA-certified Organic and Fair Trade coffee roaster. Founded four years ago, the Shearwater brand has filled cups in restaurants and coffee shops across Connecticut, while bagged specialty coffees are on the shelves of Whole Foods and several independent grocery stores and are sold on the Shearwater website.
Freedman, who held sales director positions at Avaya Professional Services and BT Global Services before starting his business, believed that the time was right for the Shearwater brand to go in a new direction with a café serving its product line.
“When you look at the company and our growth, we felt that our brand had so much visibility from our customers that it was a great opportunity to explore getting into the retail-side café,” he said. “However, it was not a simple decision of, hey, let”™s open a coffee shop!”
Freedman had always planned to open his coffee bar in his hometown Fairfield. “I always thought Fairfield was a Starbucks-dominated town with not much options,” he said. But expensive rents and inadequate locations repeatedly frustrated his efforts.
“I was running a half-dozen P&Ls (profit and loss statements) to see what made the most sense,” he recalled. “Downtown areas in Fairfield County are expensive, so you have to be careful.”
Having found a space, Freedman was challenged to create a customer-friendly setting that would encourage people to linger and interact with the baristas. His daughter, Boston-based architect Amber Freedman, designed the space, which boasts floor-to-ceiling windows and a visual style that mixes the sharpness of modern industrial design with the casual comfort level of a traditional coffee house.
“We are looking to create an atmosphere that is intimate for more information exchange,” Freedman said. “Unlike most coffee shops, where you get in line and they put your name on a cup and you”™re then on your way, we want you to come in and spend time with us, talk to us about coffee.”
Launching his retail venture, Freedman was adamant about not being in the food service business. Although a few pastries from local artisanal bakers are offered for sale, the café has no kitchen and no plans to fire up a grill. “This isn”™t where you come for a full breakfast or lunch,” he said. “There are plenty of great restaurants here. We don”™t want the staff to be making sandwiches or flipping burgers.”
Varga, the store manager, is training a five-person barista team on using the café”™s new Faema E71 coffee machine ”” Shearwater is the first East Coast establishment to use the Italian-made espresso maker ”” while encouraging them to consider the value of what they are serving.
Freedman, who said his startup costs amounted to a low six-digit figure, is already considering opening more Shearwater coffee bars.
“This could be the first of many,” he said. “We are approaching this by knowing we have to do our very best here.”
