July 21st, 2008

Blue State Coffee in the Providence Business Journal

Posted by Alex Payson at 1:57 pm

Thanks to the Providence Business Journal for writing this great article about us:

Blue State patrons drink liberally
By Ted Nesi _PBN Staff Writer
Like millions of other Democrats, Drew Reuben was disappointed when Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential election. But, unlike most of Kerry’s unhappy supporters, Reuben turned his disappointment into action – and a successful business plan.
Reuben and his father, Marshall, are the founders of Blue State Coffee, a Thayer Street café with a novel twist – 10 percent of the company’s profits are donated to liberal causes. Since opening its doors a year ago, Blue State Coffee has already donated $50,000 to a variety of local and national groups, including Providence Summerbridge and People for the American Way.
Blue State Coffee opened in September 2006 as a Web-only operation, with the Thayer Street shop following in July 2007. Although the Web site has been slow to take off, the café was an immediate hit with the students and workers around Brown University.
When you walk into Blue State, there’s no question you’re in an establishment that has a point of view, with its “Bush’s Last Day” merchandise and other liberal-minded signs. But although patrons may come for the causes, they stay for the coffee, according to Alex Payson, Blue State’s general manager.
“It’s good coffee that supports great causes,” said Payson, a 27-year-old Brown graduate. “Quality is always paramount. Without that, we’re an empty store with sad faces around.”
Reuben agreed. “If we can’t make a profit – if the business isn’t viable – we can’t do any good for the world,” he said.
Reuben, a Connecticut native, came up with the idea for Blue State Coffee shortly after the election, when he was still a 16-year-old high school sophomore. “I’ve always been thinking outside the box,” he said.
As Reuben tells it, he and his father were talking politics on a coffee run to Dunkin Donuts, when Drew looked at the menu and began to think: “Can’t we channel that [money] into the causes we’re talking about and care about?”
Despite their lack of a business background, Reuben’s attorney father, Marshall, was game. That night, the pair came up with a slogan – “Drink liberally” – and soon brought on board a like-minded family. The group dove into the project, researching coffees and marketing plans, and eventually opened the Blue State Coffee Web site.
They also began scouting locations for the first café, quickly settling on Providence.
“We stepped foot on Thayer Street, and it’s the ideal location for a coffee shop like this,” said Reuben. “We spent time trying to find the right location – we looked at Northampton, Cambridge, New Haven – and we never found a spot quite like Thayer Street.”
Reuben, who just finished his freshman year as a political science student at Yale and is currently an intern for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said it was important to create the right atmosphere in the café. He wanted it to feel eclectic and fun, but also clean and comfortable.
“We wanted to be very certain we didn’t look like a cookie-cutter Starbucks store,” he said, “but we wanted to make sure we were clean, because some places were dirty during my research, and that’s not fun.”
As befits a business that wears its social mission on its sleeve, Blue State Coffee buys and sells organic, fair-trade, and locally made products. “We’re trying to be the ‘greenest’ coffee shop in the bluest state,” Payson said, laughing.
The company’s coffee beans are supplied by New Harvest Coffee Roasters, a Pawtucket company that specializes in high-quality, small-batch roasts. Since New Harvest is only a city away, the coffee beans are still warm when they get delivered to Blue State.
The company also uses cups that are compostable and biodegradable, and buys electricity from People’s Power and Light, which supports alternative energy.
Blue State also supports local causes. Each quarter, patrons vote for which organizations they think should receive the company’s contributions.
The company recently signed a lease to open a second café in New Haven. Reuben hopes the new location will open its doors by the fall – just before the November election. Eventually, he would like to see Blue State Coffee stores throughout New England.
So, if you drink enough Blue State java, do you become more liberal?
Reuben and Payson won’t go that far. But there’s anecdotal evidence that may be the case – the week before he left the Republican Party to become an independent, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee made his first visit to Blue State Coffee, Payson said with a chuckle. •

Posted in General news, BSC in the press, Stores, Providence/Thayer St Store