Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 2/7/2022
LUDLOW – With a central location in Ludlow, East Street Coffee offers patrons a cozy atmosphere along with local food, coffee and crafts for purchase.
Lydia Chagnon, East Street Coffee’s owner, said she initially opened her doors in May 2021.
“We opened May 15 last year, it took me about five months to build everything in here, I started from scratch. This was actually the third location on East Street that we looked at and we went with this one for two reasons, it had parking which is huge, and the hood was already here because it had previously been food service,” she said.
Chagnon said one of the reasons she picked Ludlow is because of its lack of a hometown coffee shop.
“I picked Ludlow mostly because my previous business partner owns a business in Ludlow and I live in town, so it just seemed mostly convenient and also I found that Ludlow is severely lacking real coffee or at the very least non-corporate coffee,” she said. “I used to work in Wilbraham and there was more than one place to get fresh, good coffee so I felt like it would be a home run in Ludlow.”
Starting with the stone wall that decorates the center of the shop, Chagnon said she worked step by step with her designers to build out the rest.
“It was not terribly difficult to do, I had the help of someone who works in construction, someone else who has a lot of experience in woodwork and design, all three of us are very creative minded, and I went in with a decent budget to create the vision that I saw. We really just took it step by step,” she said.
When designing the space, Chagnon said she wanted people to feel at home.
“The goal that I was going for – what I really wanted people to feel like when they came in and they sat down – was that they were getting served in their own living room. I did not want that sterile, restaurant, corporate vibe I wanted that very soft, very comfortable feel to it,” she said. “If I did not work here, I would want it to be a place that I would want to come.”
Chagnon said all her coffee comes from local coffee beans.
“I get my beans delivered, but they are local, I use Red Barn Coffee Roasters, which is out of Upton, MA, for my house brew and my flavored coffees and I use Saccuzzo out of Connecticut for my dark roasts and espressos,” she said. “I tried to stay as local as possible.”
During the summer, Chagnon said she also tries to use locally source produced on top of the lineup of homemade food.
“Everything here is made fresh and in-house, if somebody orders a breakfast sandwich, we crack an egg on the grill for it, our soups are homemade, our muffins, I really wanted a very high-quality menu,” she said. “We also make our own bagels here because I know there are shops that sell muffin tops and those kinds of things, so I wanted bagels to be my kind of thing because there is no where really close to get a homemade bagel.”
Chagnon said she has received plenty of feedback and is continually trying to improve the shop.
“We have gotten a lot of comments on how people absolutely love the breakfast sandwiches, there is definitely room for improvement; this is the first time I have owned a coffee shop, not my first rodeo in the restaurant industry, but I went into this blind as far as the world of breakfast and coffee,” she said.
On top of using local produce and coffee beans, Chagnon said there is also local art available for sale.
“Being a local business myself, I wanted to give people an outlet where they could display their products and get their name out there. In order to sell artwork, a lot of times you have to cut the price in half, and I wanted to give people an outlet to sell at a reasonable price and it brings people in,” she said. “It is all local commission items and nearly everything is handmade.”
One of the reasons Chagnon said she wanted to move on from her previous jobs was to spend more time with her family, especially after the beginning of COVID-19.
“I definitely needed to get out of the work environment I was in, I was managing a bar at the time and I was doing hair, so I was working a lot of hours and after COVID going back into the bar business was not ideal, it had lost its sparkle, it had lost its thrill for me, I wanted to be at home with my family at night and I have always wanted my own business,” she said.
Chagnon recalled visiting a coffee shop as a child with her grandmother as one of the inspirations for opening her own shop.
“When I was younger my grandmother used to take my sister and me to this really cute coffee shop, this really eclectic place and I aways loved going there, I loved the atmosphere. Deciding what move I wanted to make in my life, I kept coming back to that. During shutdown and a few long conversations with my previous boss, we both agreed there is a lot of potential in coffee and I kind of just went with it,” she said.
So far, Chagnon said she is happy with the way things are going.
“It is rewarding but it is stressful. I have to work very hard to get the results that I am looking for, but it is very rewarding and I love being home at 3 p.m. It is something that I can see myself doing for a number of years in the future,” she said.
Chagnon added that she wanted to provide a unique experience for her customers.
“I wanted something different, you see all these really fun TV shows with places to visit in your state and all those kinds of things and I kind of strive to potentially be on one of those or have people come in and say they have never seen anything like this,” she said.
East Street Coffee is located at 135 East St. in Ludlow and can be reached at 610-0889 or found online on Facebook and Instagram.