Jack's Builds a New Box
Jack Mazzola’s organic fair-trade coffee company has expanded into roomier quarters in Amagansett Square, making way for what the former daytime soap star turned coffee king hopes will become “the social club of Amagansett.” The space at the edge of Main Street formerly occupied by another Sylvester & Co. store has been transformed with what Mr. Mazzola calls a “vintage nautical” theme, in which driftwood, maps, and found objects accent the walls.
Mr. Mazzola’s own photo collages, which consist primarily of images of Montauk, are for sale, and shelf space is brimming with Jack’s Coffee mugs, hats, and other merchandise.
Nearly a decade ago, Mr. Mazzola patented his stir-brew coffee machine, which makes his Central American blends less bitter, as they are oxygenated while brewing, he said. He has committed himself to selling fair-trade coffee exclusively .
“It’s been very trendy, supporting sustainability,” he said during a flurry of excitement as workers moved the pieces of his store from its former digs in the nook beside Randy Lerner’s Meeting House restaurant. But Mr. Mazzola’s passion for sustainable living sprouted long before the trend, he said. To that end, he and Mr. Lerner, who owns the square, share a common vision.
Soups and sandwiches made in the kitchen of the Meeting House will be served to go at Jack’s, where increased counter space has made way for a sandwich press and what will be an organic juice bar.
The plan is to serve the juices “bottled in our own packaging.” A selection of oatmeal, millet, and other warm breakfasts will round out the morning menu, which already includes muffins, cookies, and pastries made by bakers from here and New York City.
Mr. Mazzola’s flagship store on Greenwich Avenue expanded first with satellite locations in other parts of Manhattan, and he set up shop in the square in July. He will oversee operations of his other stores from a loft office overlooking the floor of the Amagansett store.
From the moment he opened the first shop, “we were overwhelmed. It was surprising how welcoming the community was, and to discover customers and friends from New York,” who spend time on the South Fork in the summer, he said.
By next season, Mr. Mazzola hopes to have started his “Reggae Jams at Jack’s,” and other live shows and films. He has been in conversations with a D.J. from New York and promised that the Sunday afternoon sessions would include $5 lobster rolls from Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett.
In the meantime, Mr. Mazzola is in something of a nesting phase, shifting around furniture and decorations, and planning for the future. “It was basically just a white canvas,” when he moved in, he said on Monday, gesturing to a cork board he had set up for community postings. An alcove that would soon be home to a selection of newspapers and magazines might also double as a stage for live entertainment.
By summer, a table he sees as a “fruit stand” might be transformed into a farmers marketplace — “we’ll use as much organic as we can,” he said.
With tables and counters to sip at and a new selection of foods, “what I look forward to in the future is foodies, musicians, first dates, fathers and sons after baseball games,” all meeting in what he calls “the nerve center” of Jack’s Coffee. Spending more time than ever here and at his house in Springs, “I’m considering this home,” he said.