Just over a year ago, Custom Coffee House launched Veteran Coffee Roasters, a new local brand featuring six different varieties that returns $1 for every pound brewed to wounded and disabled veterans.
Today, Kit and Kaboodle Craft Services LLC, a craft service company in Los Angeles serving the entertainment industry, brews the brand for crews and cast members on film shoots, commercials and, most recently, on the set at Dolby Theatre for the filming of contestants for “America’s Got Talent,” said owner Robert Mastin.
“Big wholesale accounts – that’s always a big score for us,” he said.
Established in 2002, Mastin learned to roast coffee at home and had a number of other jobs, including as a naval officer, author and contractor, before he decided to open a coffee house.
“I had no idea how good fresh-roasted coffee could be until I started roasting at home,” said Mastin.
He also decided his business should roast coffee, not just sell it wholesale and retail, to be competitive not just with companies that do likewise but with the chains like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.
“I don’t like to do things half way, so I felt to be truly competitive, I really had to roast in-house to stand apart and emphasize quality,” he said.
In 2006, Mastin opened a second coffeehouse in a 3,000-square-feet space at Clock Tower Square in Portsmouth, double the size of his current location. That was sold in 2009 to the current owners, who had a license to do business as Custom Coffee House but added a restaurant to the business.
In 2013, those owners renamed their business Portsmouth Publick House, Mastin said, and still buy his coffee wholesale.
Custom Coffee House imports coffee beans from Royal Coffee in Edison, N.J., and InterAmerican Coffee, headquartered outside of Boston. The Arabica beans come from all the major coffee-growing regions around the world.
The most popular coffee is the Custom House Blend, which mixes Colombian Supremo with Costa Rican Tarrazu. He also sells four organic coffees, two organic blends and 15 varietals. Workers also prepare wraps, paninis, cookies and other food in a kitchen in a separate building and sells them premade in the coffeehouse. He sells mugs and coffee canisters with the company logo too, he said.
The biggest challenge for Custom Coffee House has been the high turnover associated with the work, though he has two workers who help with the roasting and deliveries, he said. Phil Larson, a former co-owner of the Mooring in Newport, and Steve Demeter known as “the coffee guy,” are part-time roasters and also do the deliveries to most of the more than 50 wholesale accounts.
Future plans are just to keep having fun, he said.
“I learned my lesson opening another store and I don’t want to do that again,” Mastin said. “That’s a lot of work. Growing the wholesale business is easier to manage.” •
