Agapao’s first sip of service
Longtime supplier takes over coffee kiosk at St. Michael’s Village West
Agapao Coffee and Tea is taking a tiny step into serving coffee and tea after 15 years of supplying packaged coffee to stores and restaurants in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe-Taos corridor.
Agapao is taking over the 63-square-foot parking lot kiosk at St. Michael’s Village West, occupied for the past 20 years by Cecilia Gonzalez‘s Hava Java.
Gonzalez retired at the end of the year, and Dave Black got the invitation from the center owners to fill the space with his Agapao Coffee and Tea.
“I’ve been looking for a space for a coffee shop for at least 10 years,” Black said. “The rents are astronomical in Santa Fe. We’re a family company. It’s just me and my four kids [and two other people]. I don’t have any investors.”
He has a 28-year-old daughter who flew in from Seattle last weekend to help paint what Black calls the “drive-thru coffee shack.” His 18-year-old son, Jared, will manage the kiosk, and Black and his 14-year-old son will man the shop Saturdays.
The kiosk will be open Monday to Saturday. Black is toying with weekday hours from about 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 or 3 p.m., but he will adjust them to whatever works best for customers. The shack likely will open a bit later on Saturdays.
He hopes to open by Friday, but that depends on city and state inspections.
Black intends to serve coffee, tea and iced tea along with a daily coffee special. He expects to serve his organic espresso, organic Sumatra and Dave’s Signature Blend coffees, as well as herbal, black, red and chamomile teas.
Agapao Coffee and Tea sells about 2,000 pounds of packaged coffee a week to area stores and restaurants.