Set in a shaded spot along the Mill River, a short distance from a dam and behind historic mill buildings, an out-of-the-way coffee shop is becoming a favorite spot for some Northampton residents.
“I love that it’s off the beaten path,” says Alison Keehn, a writer from Northampton sitting across from her sister, Molly Keehn, at a table on the covered porch outside YUP Coffee Roasters. “I love the atmosphere of the river behind us and the trees, but I also love the coffee.”
“There’s something so soothing about being near the waterfall and the stream,” Molly Keehn said, adding that as a frequent patron of coffee shops, YUP has become a new favorite, in part because owners Matt Bousquet and Liza Jeswald-Bousquet have been so kind in welcoming her and her 6-month-old pug, Wilbur Noodles.
At another table, its surface stained red from its previous life as a wine barrel cover, Connie Parks of Florence was using Wi-Fi to get in touch with her father prior to his 82nd birthday.
“The location can’t be beat,” Parks said. “I appreciate that this is reconnecting to the river and the incredible industrial past.”
Bousquet described the months since June 25 opening of the store at 296 Nonotuck St. as “amazing” and “really fun” and attributes the early success partly to the location’s proximity to the Mill River, including a stone wall on which people can also sit and view the river. “People like the spot on the water,” he said.
Jeswald-Bousquet and Bousquet, who live in Ashfield, both have extensive experience in the food industry. Jeswald-Bousquet worked as a private chef, while Bousquet was a baker at The Black Sheep Deli in Amherst, line cook at The Deerfield Inn and worked at Pierce Brothers Coffee.
Both Bousquet and Jeswald-Bousquet said they are thrilled they decided to open the storefront, with Jeswald-Bousequet noting that having the retail side of the business has been “beautiful and inspiring.”
“It makes me feel like I am part of the community, and in service of the community,” Jeswald-Bousquet said.
Bousquet agreed, saying that it is “awesome to have the community engaging.”
Inside the store, customers will find a small area to order coffee from the beans roasted on-site, and a selection of pastries from Bread Euphoria and bagels from Davidovich NYC.
Bousquet said YUP Coffee specializes in high-altitude, fair trade and organic beans, coming in large burlap sacks, by way of a New York distributor, from Bali, Peru, Colombia, Ethiopia and Costa Rica.
The beans are then poured into the large wooden wine barrels where they are stored until they are placed inside the massive roaster.
Bousquet scoops out 30 pounds of beans, which are then funneled into the steel drum. Gas burners heat the beans, though the flame never touches them because the drum is double-walled.
Bousquet listens for the cracking of the beans and smells the beans to determine how long and at what temperature the roasting should take place. After about 20 minutes, the roasting is done and the beans go into a cooling tray, before later being packaged for sale.
“There is an art to it that you figure out,” said Bousquet, adding “each coffee is like a character, you have to figure it out.”
“We are creative people,” said Jeswald-Bousquet, noting that having the store is a way for the couple to “express our creativity.”
When the couple began thinking about a store, Bousquet said he initially envisioned making YUP exclusively a coffee roaster, and whatever site found would be a place to package roasted beans and then wholesale them to local stores, such as Cooper’s Corner.
Though originally looking at a building in Buckland and other spots, Jeswald-Bousquet noticed a for lease sign from her offices at Represent Us, where she has worked as a writer and editor.
“We saw the sign and talked to the landlord and he mentioned the space in the back that needed a lot of work,” Bousquet said. “But that proximity to water we thought it would be a nice place to be.”
Working with her father Peter Jeswald, they spent 18 months building out the space once used as storage by Pro Brush.
Jeswald notes that he needed to make the store fully handicapped accessible, with a ramp and bathroom that meets building code.
The couple said it was a tremendous amount of work to fix up the warehouse, have their roaster inspected by an engineer, and to get a flood variance because they are so close to the water. “It was a lot of homework,” said Bousquet.
The name YUP comes from Nan Parati at Elmer’s Store in Ashfield, who told the couple she had a dream about their business in which people were sitting around a table and each one responded “yup” when asked if they wanted a cup of coffee.
Jeswald-Bousquet said that owning a business with her husband has its challenges.
“Sometimes we have to take a step back and remember that we are husband and wife, and not just business partners,” Jeswald-Bousquet said.
Bousquet said that Northampton was a good place to roast coffee, as there is a lot of what he calls healthy competition around. “Many cafes around here roast their own coffee,” Bousquet said.
Overall, the couple said that so far the experience has been “awesome.”
“It’s been really fun,” Bousquet said.
Gazette intern Mack Cooper contributed to this report. Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
