Share Coffee An interview with Share Coffee

To give a quick background, I started as head roaster and lead barista at Rao’s in Amherst back in 1997. The owner at the time sold the business and I ended up being let go. I was 24 at the time, and had been fully committed to that job. I went on to do some other things for a while as friends around me started building bars and buying restaurants and encouraged me to do the same. I wasn’t on that path yet, but I did enjoy consulting on some projects with various friends.

Then, in 2006, I ended up buying the Lady Killigrew in Montague. Two years into owning that business, Bob Lowry, who owns the seven Bueno Y Sano locations, asked me to buy Rao’s with him. I initially said no, but that I’d come on board to assist with the coffee side of the business. Six months later, we ended up going in on it together after all, with me buying the cafe side. We discussed opening another location, but I was out straight between work and family at the time.

In 2010, Thornes put out a call for someone to move into the cafe space in the building. We went to talk with them and they offered us the space. We weren’t entirely certain how we would manage, but we went ahead with the deal and kept it a Rao’s for five years. As someone who cares deeply about the coffee side of the business, I knew I wanted to own a roastery. That led to starting Share in 2015 as a wholesale and subscription business initially. After the contract was up, we changed from Rao’s to Share. Ultimately, Bob decided he wanted to focus on Bueno, so he asked me to buy him out and I’ve now owned Share since 2016. We’ve occupied our space in Thornes for 16 years and we also continue to operate at our Amherst location.

I listen to pitches from time to time regarding potential new businesses, but I usually tell them I already have 33 refrigerators and I’m not really looking to take on more! I follow up and remain open-minded, but I’m happy with the communities we’re in right now, and I enjoy putting more energy into getting better at what we’ve already created.

The sense of community is my number one thing. Thornes is truly the communal hub of downtown Northampton and I always wanted to get into the building as a business owner. It was consistently my go-to spot when I was coming to town as a customer or patron. The owners and management at Thornes are wonderful and care so much about the businesses. The amount of money and resources they reinvest into the stores is amazing. They are always asking what they can do to benefit us, always staying on top of metrics, email clicks, and other data to see how we are doing. You feel like you are working with a team.

As a specialty coffee business, there’s a bit of a stigma attached to it. So the fact that we can serve people coffee in a place like Thornes is pretty great. People will be shopping and feel like they need a coffee break. Then they try our coffee and are so impressed that they keep coming back, often saying it’s the best coffee they’ve ever had. People just need to be exposed to it, and we have to show them that we’re accessible, warm, and welcoming.

I love that we can support our fellow business owners, who have become friends over the years. Nate at Paul &Elizabeth’s helps us out with ice if we’re having an emergency. I get my jeans from Will at Jackson & Connor. It’s a truly special and unique place to be, for business owners and visitors alike.

There are two cool things I’m excited about. For one, we’re continuing a promotion of any size filter drip coffee for just $1.87. People ask why we are offering coffee at that price and it’s because we want to say thank you to our dedicated guests while also exposing new people to what our coffee is all about in as affordable a way as possible. We ran the promo all last month and we plan to continue it.

We’re also bringing back the Blended Iced Latte, which is based on a drink we used to offer, but with some upgrades. We’ve switched up the cold brew to espresso and you can get it with any type of  milk, plus maple syrup from Hadley, which enhances the espresso flavor. People who love our drinks with house-made syrup are big fans, and even hardcore customers who love basic espresso drinks and might never normally order something like this love it. It tastes like a world-class latte. We’ve been getting the staff trained on making it and plan to start offering it this month. It’s a great warm weather drink. I am genuinely excited about this one, as it took a long time to crack the code, but we finally got it right after a couple of years of testing.

I also really want people to know that we have the best made-to-order egg sandwiches. We use Stone Skillet English muffins and Cabot cheddar. The Steak & Eggs sandwich, which is kind of a sleeper, has roast beef from Vermont. We sell hundreds of egg sandwiches a day in Amherst—they are that good!

I love skiing with my daughter at Berkshire East, where we often run into other Thornes’ business owners and guests. Otherwise, I enjoy hanging out with my family and our dog. We have family dinners together almost every night and puzzle time on the weekends. My oldest daughter is currently in Spain, attending grad school for architecture. My wife and younger daughter have had a chance to visit her in Europe, both when she was in school in France and now in Spain. I am hoping to get there eventually, hopefully when she returns to Paris after completing her current degree.