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There’s flavor at Small Town Coffee Roasters, and it’s not just from the coffee. Patrons settle onto bar stools comfortably as though they were in a friend’s kitchen. Others chat animatedly on one of the couches. It’s a place where people can gather, where ideas are born and bloom from crop to cup, much like the coffee that’s served.
“If you’re going to do something, you should love it,” said Small Town Coffee Roasters co-owner Enrique Vega. “I had two loves - coffee and pipe tobacco. I’ve no longer got the pipe, but the coffee stayed.”
Enrique was introduced to coffee as a child. Growing up in his native Cuba, he said, he often had trouble sleeping. His mother would make him coffee con leche (coffee with milk) to help him rest. In 1960 his family moved from Cuba to the United States, settling on the coast of North Carolina. Having grown up in a small town, starting a business in “small town friendly” was a perfect match.
Enrique’s love of coffee continued to grow when a few years ago he decided he needed to make a big change. Packing up his life, Enrique traveled to Mexico and Ecuador, planning to move south. Along the way, he was exposed to coffee and coffee plantations.
“It was some of the best coffee I’ve ever had. Three to four weeks after coffee is roasted, it’s delicious,” he said.
He also came to a realization - he missed his family, and wasn’t ready for such a big move. His son, Monte, and daughter-in-law invited him to Rutherfordton. “With his invitation to come back and my knowledge of coffee … I asked him if he was interested in starting this business and he thought it was a good idea.”
Located in the former First National Bank building in Rutherfordton, Enrique has an apartment in the back with the coffee shop at the front of the house. The Vegas remodeled the building, repurposing old desks and credenzas into the coffee bar and painting a mural both on the inside and out. Small Town Coffee Roasters opened for business on Oct. 31, 2014.
“The community has really embraced us,” Enrique said. “Word of mouth has been good … it’s really been good.”
The Vegas have made connections with small farmers in coffee growing areas of the world, buying crops to roast before they are even grown. The green beans are shipped to them for roasting.
Roasting is “trial and error,” Monte said. The Vegas started small, roasting 8 ounces at a time. Monte learned to listen for audio marks that occur during the process - “The first crack is the moisture being cooked out of the bean. A couple of minutes later comes the second crack.”
Now, Small Town Coffee Roasters roasts a few times a week in an antique roaster dating from 1900.
“When we bought it it hadn’t been used in 50 years, and it was not in working condition,” Enrique said. Using their blacksmithing backgrounds, the Vegas put copper plating on parts of the roaster. Temperature probes that connect to a computer system brought the roaster into the 21st century.
Traffic around the Court Street location picks up when the roaster is going, Enrique said.
“Coffee sells itself. If you can provide a unique and quality product, people will want to come to you,” he said.
Small Town Coffee Roasters is open Monday-Saturday, 7 am to 8 pm. For more information, visit smalltowncoffeeroasters.com.
