I Break for Good Coffee.

Don't pay attention to the coming soon sign, I couldn't find any pictures of this shop.

When ever I'm out at the bay house I make an effort to get to Aldo's Coffee every morning that I'm there. Going to Aldo's, people find that aside from getting great coffee, Aldo Maiorana has a peculiar way of serving up his coffee: with a side of verbal abuse. He opened up his shop many, many years ago when he ended up leaving his career as a NYC chef and coming out to Greenport, L.I. to start his coffee business.

Now this is not just any old coffee, I wouldn't be talking about it if it was. Another good inclination that his shop is really great is that there is a Starbucks directly across the street and locals as well as tourists (sometimes) gravitate over to his side. When it comes to the preparation, never question it or you're just asking to be verbally attacked and you'll just have to go and buy a pound of his beans and prepare your glass yourself at home. However, don't be afraid, you can always have a calm, casual conversation with him.

What makes his coffee so special is that he has reserves where he orders and receives his beans daily; once those beans come he has his own machine in the front of the store where he roasts them for the day. Once the roasting process is finished, he takes half of what he roasted and bags them in pounds for sale ($13 a pound) and he takes the other half and uses it to make the coffee up at the counter. Once he is done with one of the types of beans, he roasts others. He imports his raw coffee beans from both Guatemala and Sumatra, selling both caffeinated and decaf.

I don't know how he roasts the coffee and I don't think that many people do if not any. He must be the only one to do so and he keeps his secret safe very well. Even though he has a limited selection in his store he makes an effort to keep everything artfully prepared. Which brings me to my next point about the shop which makes it great, though slow at times when there is a lot of business.

Aldo has very few people working for him and that includes himself. He rarely trusts people to do anything in his store and if they don't do something right, he'll get frustrated with them. It takes a lot for people to prove themselves to him. He has one woman preparing his scones which sell out instantly as well as his signature biscotti which are unlike any other in the US if not all of Europe. He makes sure that all of the baking is done right and routinely. In terms of making the coffee at the counter, he usually makes it himself with the exception for his niece and nephew from France that are assisting him for the summer and just recently he trusted them to make the coffee on their own.

Ultimately, I make all of the effort that I can to get down to Greenport to have one, if not two cups of his famous "Caffe Latte" and a pound of Guatemalan beans. It if for sure worth making the trip to have it, just don't piss him off.