booskerdoo coffee company bakery ashbury new jersey cafe roastery sprudge
The action in Asbury Park trends east. Ocean air, boardwalk vibes, and a hot new hotel all help. But lately, locals have been hitting up the rising northwest side to caffeinate. There, Booskerdoo Coffee Company has planted its headquarters just over the tracks, uniting a roastery, bakery, and coffee bar over 2,000 square feet. When youโ€™re used to roasting in an 800-square-foot space shared with a cafe, thatโ€™s a mighty upgrade.

โ€œOur original space in Monmouth Beach was a nook,โ€ laughs James Caverly, who launched Booskerdoo with wife and head baker Amelia Caverly in 2011. โ€œWe had a Diedrich IR-12, and we were running that thing 40 hours a week. The space was just insane.โ€ Heโ€™s not joking. Roastmaster Michael Costaney would work from a chair perched atop bags of beans.

booskerdoo coffee company bakery ashbury new jersey cafe roastery sprudge
James Caverly

In a way, that imageย perfectly describesย Booskerdooโ€™s origins. Caverly fell hard for coffee living in New York City and experimented by roasting Colombia Excelso in a pizza pan. It was a smoky affair, but he was hooked. โ€œIt wasnโ€™t some fancy micro-lot,” he says, “but we were like holyโ€ฆโ€.

Opened in October 2016, Booskerdoo’sย Asbury Park flagship now allows the team room to stretchโ€”though not too much room. The bakeshop now has dedicated space, turning out all manner of sweetness. The roaster has been upgraded to a Diedrich CR-25, complemented by a La Marzocco GB5, Mahlkรถnig grinders, and a Wilbur Curtis drip brewer, plus a Beehouse and Hario pour-over setup.

Vibrant coffee is the result, some with cheeky names for both food and drinkย reflecting Caverly’s prior life as a writer. Humor extends to the walls, where a painted monkey-astronaut-merman shares space with a lion-cactus-octopus. No, really.

advert but first coffee cookbook now available

 

booskerdoo coffee company bakery ashbury new jersey cafe roastery sprudge

booskerdoo coffee company bakery ashbury new jersey cafe roastery sprudge

This is also one of threeโ€”count ’emโ€”locations launched in under a year. Not that empire-building was the goal. Originally, only Asbury Park was in the plan, where the tight indie scene was a draw. While building out the space, Caverly was approached by Pier Village in Long Branch, where a shop opened last July will soon be paired with a summertime cold-brew shack. Then Bell Works came knocking. A reimagining of the Bell Labs campusโ€”once home to seven Nobel winners and the birthplace of cellular techโ€”it blendsย innovation and lifestyle space, as is the fashion nowadays. A drip bar there will be upgraded to a full-on shop in August.

What hasnโ€™t been lost in all the expansion is a coffee-for-all ethos. โ€œWe donโ€™t want to function as a chain,โ€ Caverly says. Walk into the Asbury shop as the sun climbs, and you might find Brooklynites on holiday, construction workers, fishermen, families, and commuters sharing counter space. Whether one wants to geek over a single-origin brew or stick to the basics, theyโ€™re welcomed just the same.

booskerdoo coffee company bakery ashbury new jersey cafe roastery sprudge

booskerdoo coffee company bakery ashbury new jersey cafe roastery sprudge

โ€œWe try to educate the customer about our coffee, but we always start with laymanโ€™s terms,โ€ Caverly says. โ€œYou see the evolution, plain as day. They start to come back, and suddenly theyโ€™re trying different coffees and having fun with itโ€”and itโ€™s completely of their own volition.โ€ It turns out that sometimes the nice guys do win.

Booskerdoo Coffee Company is located at 1321 Memorial Drive, Asbury Park, New Jersey. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Jenn Hall (@jennsarahhall) is a Sprudge contributor who writes about food, culture, and drink from a Jersey-side suburb of Philly. This is her first feature for Sprudge.

banner advertising the book new rules of coffee