Couple buys, to transform Park Avenue coffee shop

Kerry Feltner//March 20, 2015//

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(Photo by Kimberly McKinzie)

In recent months, the owners of Park Avenue’s future Café Sasso have become a little bolder.

Spouses Jessica Stroud and Peter Sapia have purchased Boulder Coffee Co. Inc. on Park Avenue—for $100,000, closing on the deal late February. They are ready to make their mark on Rochester’s coffee scene.

Stroud was in charge of the Boulder Coffee Co. shops on Alexander Street and Park Avenue for nine years, and Sapia was the store manager at the Park Avenue location for five years.

In about a month, Café Sasso will bring to life a 1930s art nouveau style to a cafe atmosphere.

“Sasso actually means stone in Italian so it’s sort of like a mini-homage,” Sapia said. “We want it to feel more classic, romantic.

“It’s a little bit vibrant at the moment, and we’d like to bring it down in a subtle way.”

The sale of the business was due to previous owner and real estate developer Lyjha Wilton’s need to slow down. Wilton owns La Casa on Alexander Street—an authentic Mexican restaurant. He also owns real estate assets through his firm Wilton Enterprises Inc.

“This location wasn’t really sold because it was doing badly by any terms. We did this just because I really need to simplify my life,” Wilton said. “It’s been a rough year for me. What I’ve found in my history of owning businesses is that once you start with one and you do well with it, you get this momentum and stuff just starts coming at you.”

“I realized I need to take a step back and re-assess what I want to do in my life,” he added.

Stroud also works as property manager at Boulder Realty, the property management arm of Wilton Enterprises.

There are a total of 10 staffers at the Park Avenue shop, including the owners. There are plans to add two people this year depending on business.

The coffee and food menu will remain much the same with standard coffeehouse items, including muffins or scones, along with paninis, salads and sandwiches. The major change coming to the food selection is the option of gluten-free products. It is based on recent customer requests.

“It’s interesting personally to see how the decisions that you make can either be good or bad and having your own impact,” Sapia said. “Working for someone else is cool because they have a vision and you are expected to execute that vision. Whether they’re right or wrong, your job is to execute what they wanted (but) it’s interesting to have the freedom to make those choices yourself.”

The cafe is one of the few ones in Rochester that has a full liquor license, officials said. The cafe will serve only top-shelf liquor served for higher end cocktails than what previously has been done. The pair took control of the shop in January and became owners last month.

“(Selling to) Jessica and Peter was twofold for me: it rewarded two very dedicated employees (and) to be able to work out an arrangement for them to get it made me feel good about where it was going instead of like the other possibilities of what could happen to it,” Wilton said.

“I know they’re going to do a great job of carrying the torch on of what they’re going to do. They deserve their own thing; they were working all this time for me and working as if it was their own,” he added.

There remain two Boulder Coffee Co. locations owned by Wilton: the South Wedge location at 100 Alexander St. and at the Rochester Public Market.

At one time he owned five locations, including Park Avenue a kiosk at Crossroads Building on State Street and at Brooks Landing. Wilton opened the first location in the South Wedge in 2005.

“The way we’ve been thinking of it is like the South Wedge is like rock n’ roll and we’re more like jazz,” Sapia said.

The owners want to remind patrons of the second wave independent coffee shop, credited with the proliferation of coffee and bringing coffee into the everyday routine. Second wave coffee also is able to provide coffee quickly whereas third wave sticks to a refined process in lieu of speed of delivery.

Today the third wave of coffee—that focuses on achieving the highest form of coffee instead of just thinking of coffee as a commodity—is being realized across coffee shops in the country. Third wave coffee shops generally do not do blended coffee, smoothies or hot chocolate with whipped cream.

“You walk into those coffee shops and it’s usually no art on the wall very minimalistic science-y lab and that’s cool, and that’s been hitting big the last four years (but) people forgot hey there’s Java’s, hey there’s Boulder,” Stroud said. “We’re old school; we’re like the 1960s poetry, art, music—independent second wave is not going anywhere. We’re here, we’re strong.”

There is some crossover between second and third wave coffee, Sapia said. The quality of coffee still is respected in second wave but it is not the central focus.

“We try to give people coffee that has a high level of quality without scaring them away,” Sapia said.

Café Sasso will continue to have art by local artists on display and open mic nights each Thursday. The space is roughly 1,500 square feet and can hold 48 people with an additional 24 seats on an outside patio.

Consumers can take comfort in the presence of the local owners, Wilton says.

“I think this should really encourage people to come to local places and spend money locally, spend money at the places where people that own the place are the ones working there,” he said. “I hope people recognize that they’re very hardworking people, and I hope they spend their money here as opposed to franchise locations. There might be more of those that you can get to but this one is local owner operated.”

Café Sasso is primed to make its debut and start growth on its own terms.

“Even when we were just managing it, we’d do drive-bys just to check and make sure the lighting is perfect when we’re not here. When you drive by and you see every table full, I can’t even describe how elated of a feeling it is,” Stroud said. “I want Café Sasso to remind people that historically, coffeehouses have been the bastions of creativity, art, music, diversity and expression—a place where culture is cultivated.”