Hampton Coffee's New Cafe Promises an 'Experience'

Hampton Coffee Company, which has locations in Water Mill and Westhampton Beach, quietly opened its third cafe Saturday, on the highly trafficked County Road 39A corridor in Southampton.

While the new cafe has the same beans, coffee, baked goods and sandwiches as the other stores, it was designed to offer much more, with coffee tastings and classes on brewing using both common methods and techniques that only the most ardent coffee enthusiasts practice.

Owner Jason Belkin said Tuesday that Hampton Coffee Experience Store is modeled after the coffee shops found in Brooklyn, which in turn are fashioned after Portland cafes. It has a West Coast feel, he said, and is the only cafe of its kind in Suffolk County.

The cafe is located in an unlikely place: a former Mini Cooper dealership. Though the store first opened its doors on Saturday, they have been working on transforming the location since November, Belkin said. The space has been completely remodeled. The old carwash in the back of the dealership is now a coffee roastery. A bar facing the highway lines the front windows, armchairs are in corners, there is outdoor seating with umbrellas, and Dwight Amada, the company's roastmaster, built two conference tables for the cafe using wood from local trees that fell during Tropical Storm Irene.

The conference tables are available for large groups and business meetings and will be used for tastings and classes.

Belkin said that to staff the store he brought in his employees from the other locations who have the most knowledge of coffee, and they have been making weekly trips to New York City to learn more.

Store manager Richard Cummins said that at classes and the pour-over coffee bar at the main counter, customers will learn how to control all the variables when brewing — water temperature, pressure, pouring speed, etc. — and how it affects the taste of the coffee.

The pour-over bar will feature four kinds of beans from different regions at a time — currently, its Central America, Indonesia, Africa and Peru — with literature on each. But customers can request to try any kind of beans in the store when they sit at the bar. Cummins recommended bringing a friend or two to experience how different the same beans can taste depending on the brewing method.

"Usually we recommend trying without milk and sugar first," Cummins said. "It's for real coffee lovers."

The store has machines and devices for nearly every manner of brewing there is, from the pour-over to the French press and Hario V60 Drip Cone  — and they are for sale too.

There is also a vacuum syphon brewer. "It's an older way of brewing coffee, but it's just come back into favor," Cummins said.

The store will be adding an "espresso experience," Cummins said. Espresso will be served with sparkling water and lemon and paired with chocolates. The store's La Marzocco Strada espresso machine, made in Italy, is already up and running.

A "cupping table" is being built for the coffee education area, he said, explaining that it's the way coffee buyers evaluate a product.

Beans are roasted and pastries are baked on site and prepared foods are made in the Water Mill cafe and brought over, Cummins said. The roaster was moved to Southampton from Water Mill, which originally had two. The entrance to the roastery has big glass doors that allow customers to see beans being roasted and bagged.

Hampton Coffee Experience Store is at 749 County Road 39A, Southampton, on the west side of the highway.

For more information, visit http://hamptoncoffeecompany.com.