🔒Q&A: Northborough coffee shop features local ownership, with a corporate feel

Aero Coffee Roasters was supposed to open in February of 2020, but, like everything that happened in 2020, the COVID pandemic had other plans. For Peter Femino, the oncoming COVID-19 shutdowns meant the coffee shop wouldn’t open until June of that year. It was a big blow. There was no opening party or early crowds, and the costs piled up. Instead, people had to trickle in as they felt comfortable with the new restrictions around them.

Now, going into the third year of business, things are looking up for Aero as Femino and his small team try to expand their reach. Aero is Femino’s third coffee startup. His first business started when he worked for Doug Curtiss Landscape Contractors, Inc. in Westborough when he purchased the coffee shop at the company’s nursery. He followed up by starting Boston Common Coffee Co. in 2004, which he and his partner Anthony Massari sold in 2018. So, he knows what to expect. Now, though, it’s about trying to recoup from the pandemic and make the most out of a business closer to home.

Why did you decide to open a coffee shop and roasting company?

I have been doing this for 26, 27 years, somewhere around there. This is actually my third startup. I was a partner in one startup and came in after it started. From there I built my own concept with a guy working with me in the business we originally started, called Boston Common Coffee Co. We opened and operated four retail locations in downtown Boston with a satellite roastery in Hopedale. We did that until 2018. We ended up closing two of the stores and sold two of the stores. I ended up buying the roasting facility, so I brought the roaster to Northborough. I wanted something closer to home.

This new concept encapsulates everything I have come to love in this industry: the roasting; the retail; and everything we make here and sell, as far as baked goods, are made in house. We have our own staff of bakers. Those are the three components I came to enjoy, and now it is all consolidated under one roof and three miles from home, instead of 40.

Why do you think the Marlborough, Southborough, and Northborough area is so popular to open a coffee roasting company?

There is Brilla Coffee in Northborough and Holden, and they roast their own coffee. Armeno Coffee Roasters in Northborough roasts their own coffee.

When I selected this location, I felt like Northborough and its demographics fit the concept I would bring. This concept is a little bit more upscale or clean, but I think the best way to describe my concept is what you would find in Boston out in the suburbs. In Boston you have a lot of these corporations, you have Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea, Inc., you have Caffè Nero, you got George Howell Coffee, and the look, feel, and operations are a lot sleeker than you would find in small suburbs. Because I have operated coffee shops in Boston for so long, I am able to bring local ownership with a corporate feel to it.

What have the first few years been like as you try to establish your business?

It's been a nightmare financially. We are still digging out of the financial hole created from opening in the pandemic. Fortunately, the concept took off, and when I look at the business in vacuum and take all the financial parts out, the business has been extremely successful, better than I thought it would be.

Yet, because we built such a large hole, we're still trying to dig out of that hole and get caught up. There were some positives that came out of the pandemic: It gave us time to really hone in what worked and didn't work. Our menu changed a lot; we altered things; it gave me time to fully train and develop my staff rather than opening and throwing my staff into this massive opening. With the stores we had in Boston, whenever we opened a new store, we'd train staff at the other store, so when the new store opened everyone was trained, everyone knew what we were doing, and everyone was on the same page. When you open a brand new concept, you're starting from zero. You need to get all the staff thinking the same way, building that brand, and building that concept, so it gave us time to do that.

What are you looking forward to?

Right now, I am trying to develop my wholesale business, trying to get other coffee shops to sell our coffee. I’m maybe potentially looking to add another location. We have a couple people interested in having our concept in their new development. We're just weighing up the pros and cons of that.

This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Staff Writer Kevin Koczwara.