Inspiration for Longfellow's Coffee
Founder and co-owner Bruce Jed reflects on how his dream of having a coffee shop took a turn to reality after 9/11. He explains the core service values of Longfellow's Coffee, and the promise of its new on-line store....
The beginning: The tragedy we all shared
I was two months shy of my 60th birthday when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field near Shanksville, Pa. My daughter works in the Merrill Lynch building directly across the street from the World Trade Center. For hours on that awful morning, we frantically tried to determine whether or not she was a casualty. She wasn't.
I didn't know anyone who died in the attacks. But in a way, like so many of us, I believe I knew them all. I'm sure that while brushing their teeth that morning, they had no inkling they were living their last hours.
Many lessons were learned on 9/11. I realized then (and it took me almost 60 years to do so) that life is fragile and temporary. We make a mistake if we postpone pursuing our dreams. Our allotted time just might run out before we try to fulfill them.
In 2001, I was engaged in a career of almost 35 years in marketing and advertising. I truly liked my clients, but was becoming increasingly burned out by the work.
For quite some time I had dreamed of operating a gourmet coffee shop, one that served the specialty coffees that were becoming increasingly popular.I envisioned a store something in the style of a Starbucks, but with an even better product and with enhanced, personal customer service.
By the middle of the following year, after the heaviness in my heart began to lift a bit, I started to school myself about the specialty coffee industry. I read everything I could about the coffee industry. I tried to pick the brains of everyone I met involved in the industry. I attended several industry conferences.
In the beginning, my due diligence in learning about the coffee industry was a sometimes thing. After all, I was still deeply involved in my advertising/marketing agency. But by early 2003, the pursuit of my dream took up more and more of my time.
At about this juncture, my son, Jordan, a university-trained chef who had collected over a decade of significant work-related credentials, asked if he might join me in my dream of starting a gourmet specialty coffee business. The prospect delighted me. And now that Longfellow's Coffee is no longer a mere idea, but a reality, this full partnership with my son has turned out to be a truly gratifying experience.
With Jordan on board, establishing the business took on new and heightened vigor. By the spring of 2003 we found the location we wanted for our first store. There followed 13 months of unexpected and arduous negotiations with the local municipality to acquire permission to build it. Our persistence prevailed. At about 5:30 on the morning of October 16, 2004, Jordan and I served Josh, our first customer, a 16-ounce cup of hot chocolate. Josh, by the way, remains a loyal, daily customer.
I have glossed over the incredible number of governmental, practical, and financial roadblocks we had to overcome before our opening. Someday, I might write about the pre build-out and build-out period of our first Longfellow's Coffee store--a complicated, frustrating, anger-provoking and expensive time. Nevertheless, as I said earlier, we prevailed. About two years after opening this first location, we opened our second store. At this writing, we are deeply involved in opening a third Longfellow's Coffee store.
It's all about quality; it's all about taste
I'd be amazed if either Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts is aware of our existence. Longfellow's Coffee, with its two stores in northern New Jersey, probably means little more to them than an inconsequential blip on their worldwide radar screens. Nevertheless, we must think of these industry giants as our competition. Our customers can just as easily drive to one of their stores as to one of ours.
How can we effectively compete with these juggernauts? Certainly Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts have far greater name recognition. They spend millions for advertising and public relations. If we're going to coexist with these colossals of coffee, we must serve products of equal or superior quality and taste.
And that's just what Jordan and I set out to do. We made a commitment to each other--and to you and all of our customers--that we would never stint on quality; that we would do everything in our power to make our specialty gourmet coffees, exotic teas, other beverages, pastries, snacks and sandwiches as pleasing as possible to your palate. We believe that when we excite your taste buds, you'll reward us with word-of-mouth advertising, which is by far the best promotion around.
Elsewhere on LongfellowsCoffee.com you can read testimonials from some of our customers. These friends, and just about everyone else who visits a Longfellow's Coffee store, love what we offer. I don't know a lot about a lot of things, but I know this with certitude--Longfellow's Coffee consistently delivers exceptional food and beverages, and our customers show their appreciation by telling others about us and by returning themselves day after day for our fare.
The commitment to quality that we make to customers who visit our New Jersey stores is the same one we make to you when you visit our virtual store here.
Quality in; quality out.
If it's going to taste great, whatever you make must start with the best ingredients. This maxim is especially true when it comes to brewing superior cups of coffee or tea. At LongfellowsCoffee.com, you will purchase many of the premium Arabica and other specialty coffees and, soon, organic teas grown around the world. The coffee beans will have been picked at their prime and roasted perfectly by masters of the craft. The delicate tea leaves will have been selected, harvested and prepared with similar masterful care.
Jordan and I are joined by Mike McKenzie in the operation of the LongfellowsCoffee.com virtual store. Mike and I are friends of long standing, having served together in the U.S. Army during the mid-1960s and having stayed in touch since. I stood proudly as Mike's best man in his wedding 15 years ago. He enjoyed a distinguished career in sports journalism and is now lending his energy and talent to the development of and day-to-day operation of LongfellowsCoffee.com.
His commitment to researching and offering products of superior quality in our virtual store is the same as Jordan's and mine. He is constantly on the lookout for excellent coffee beans and teas; value-priced, field-tested, high quality coffee brewers and espresso machines; exotic paraphernalia for the unique preparation of coffees and teas; tantalizing syrups, and a host of other ingredients, equipment and tools.
Our purpose is to provide you with everything you'll need so that when you brew and serve these beverages at home you'll enjoy a truly pleasurable experience.
Regards,
Bruce Jed
November 2008