TimesDispatch.com
Tuesday, Mar. 8, 2005
Grounded in Richmond
Coffee-shop owner traveled the world, then landed in West End to build a
business and a family
BY MELANIE MAYHEW
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Mar 8, 2005
Owner Jerry Epstein strives for eclecticism and comfort in his shop, Grove
Avenue Coffee and Tea.
MARK GORMUS/TIMES-DISPATCH
He speaks three languages, which he perfected while traveling or living in
37 countries.
And although he’s fluent in Spanish, Russian and his native English, one
language prevails at his coffee shop in the West End: “fluent delicious.”
Jerry Epstein, the owner of Grove Avenue Coffee and Tea, strives for
eclecticism and comfort in his shop and in his life.
Dog-eared children’s books and stacks of magazines chaotically crowd the
windows of his shop, leaving little room for the playfully scrawled, “fluent
delicious spoken here,” a phrase that Epstein penned to indicate that his
food speaks for itself.
A clash of blue, mustard-yellow and maroon paint decorates the shop’s
facade; inside, lime- and clementine-colored stripes race down two walls and
contrast with the purple-blue of the opposing walls. Each blink of the eye
offers a new image, images that deny the possibility that this is a
cookie-cutter corporate coffee shop.
The goal of Grove Avenue Coffee and Tea is to be like “everyone’s living
room on Sunday,” said Epstein, balancing a red-and-green espresso cup in his
hand. The mismatched furniture and a smattering of local art pieces reflect
Epstein’s homegrown, low-key approach.
A bumper sticker on his truck reads, “Friends don’t let friends drink
Starbucks.”
Epstein’s peculiar personality, as his employ PROFILE ees attest, is perhaps
the greatest contribution to the shop’s ambiance.
“Jerry is eccentric,” said Hali Emminger, a 21-year-old Virginia
Commonwealth University student and one of Epstein’s four part-time
employees, “and he’s highly caffeinated. He’s in a lot of places at once,
he’s very perky and is a real people person. He makes getting coffee here a
personal experience.”
The 59-year-old world traveler, a self-described comic, knows most of his
customers by name. When they greet him with, “Hi, how are you?” Epstein
answers, “I wish I was.”
He balances his off-beat humor with a commitment to customer satisfaction, a
goal that began years before he moved from Armenia to the United States in
1997.
Epstein, a native of Denver, worked abroad for several decades after earning
an accounting degree from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.
A series of jobs in production and quality control in the garment industry
took him to 15 countries where he learned about the importance of the
service economy. After several decades in Europe, and with a toddler and
then-wife, he decided to return to America.
The family flew to California and then drove cross-country. North Carolina
and its garment industry was the family’s original destination. Epstein, who
had previously lived in Richmond, decided that the family should settle in
the city because of its cultural and geographical offerings.
“Of all the places I’ve lived, I wanted to be here,” Epstein said. “I wanted
my daughter to grow up in the U.S. and for her to have some of the
experiences I had.”
His now 8-year-old daughter, Emily, is the center of his life. Epstein
begins preparing the shop’s food at 2:30 a.m.; he arrives home about 2 p.m.
to meet his daughter at the bus, a commitment he refuses to break.
Renting the coffee shop, which was then owned by someone else, was a way for
Epstein to secure a place in the Richmond community and take a break from
constant, tiresome travel, he said.
“I had to do something that would tie me here,” he said. “After you’ve
traveled all of your life, you better get your roots and tie yourself down.”
He knew nothing about running a coffee shop, but he knew everything about
coffee.
He had sampled coffee in 37 different countries. The difference was the
service that accompanied the coffee in the United States, he said.
“I always heard that the U.S. had a service economy, but I couldn’t find the
service,” Epstein said.
He wants his customers to get a good value at his shop, Epstein said.
Other coffee shops “give you a vision,” he said. “When you bite into me,
I’ve given you the product.”
Epstein frequently changes his menu, yet keeps a number of items that are
particularly popular. The “Eggspresso” is a blend of two eggs and Parmesan,
provolone, Asiago and Romano cheeses. Epstein steams the eggs and cheese
using the shop’s espresso machine, creating a spongy soufflé that’s in
constant demand, he said.
Customers also fill up on chai tea and lattes.
The quality of these products and the laid-back, spunky atmosphere keep Dana
Lascu coming back to the cozy shop, which features local music on the
weekends.
“It’s really quite a fun place and on the weekends, it’s really quite a
dynamic place,” said Lascu, 45, chairwoman of the University of Richmond
marketing department. She and her husband, who live in the Fan District,
frequently bring their two boys to the shop. “It’s more of what I would
expect to find in the Fan than here.”
After traveling around the world for the past few decades, Epstein has
cultivated an optimistic outlook.
“I’ve seen people come out of mud-floored places, wash their bodies at a
central hose in a village, and then go dancing and smile. In Vietnam, I saw
a girl on a crutch who was hobbling along with a smile on her face,” said
Epstein, who served in the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. “And I’ve
seen people who are colder than hell in some countries offer me a cup of
tea.
“If they can be optimistic, so can I.”
Any ideas? Staff writer Melanie Mayhew can be reached at (804) 649-6495 or
[email protected]
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