West Windsor resident and councilman Franc Gambatese has achieved successes in both his professional and political careers. Now he hopes to continue that trend while he pursues a long-time dream — the establishment of his own business.##M:[more]##
Gambatese and his wife, Mickey, recently started Grover’s Mill Coffee, an online business (www.groversmillcoffee.com) that sells almost 20 blends of coffee, and also tea, and espresso, mugs, T-shirts, and other novelties.
“This is something I’ve wanted to get into since I was 20 years old, but I wasn’t able to finance until now,” says Gambatese. “As with everything, my wife and I are partners. My daughter does the art work, and Pop-Pop (Gambatese’s father Frank) helps along with the younger kids. It’s a real family business.”
Gambatese has served as West Windsor Council president and vice president, having been elected to a four-year term on the governing body in an uncontested election in 2003. He currently works as general manager of the Lowes store in West Windsor.
Grover’s Mill Coffee launched its website in July and made its first appearance at the New Jersey Wine and Food Festival at Mercer County Community College in August. The coffee will also be making an appearance at the Princeton Chamber of Commerce Trade Fair on Thursday, September 15, and the West Windsor Harvest Festival on Saturday, October 8.
In choosing the blends offered, the Gambateses enlisted the aid of friends and family to taste test a huge variety of coffees. Factors considered included aftertaste, the color and aroma of the beans, and the taste of the coffee iced. They ended up with coffee from places around the world including Kenya, Hawaii, and Guatemala.
For now, the company’s beans are roasted by a third party. “When we find a place for our coffee house, we will roast the beans ourselves,” Gambatese says. “Modern bean rosters are so advanced that it’s very easy to duplicate the roasts, and our roaster has been great about giving us the every detail on the origin of our beans and the settings they are roasted at.”
The couple hope to eventually open a coffee shop in the Grover’s Mill area. Gambatese has been fascinated for many years with the 1938 Orson Wells’ “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast that featured Grover’s Mill at the “landing site” for a Martian invasion. He says he would like to find 150-year-old barn or farmhouse and turn it into a coffee bar and museum of what happened at Grover’s Mill. n
