Coffee. It’s amazing. It’s your morning. It’s your conversation. It’s your life. Coffee is a wonderful part of being alive and having a good coffee shop is always a welcome business anywhere in the world. In Bridgehampton, a unique coffee shop exists that goes way back to the old school days of the Hamptons. I’m talking back when The Watchcase Condos in Sag Harbor was just an old building brick building that was falling apart.
Java Nation is old school. The owner, Andrew, lives and breathes coffee and has been operating a coffee shop for decades. He used to have a Java nation in Sag Harbor for years, but decided to close up shop one day and open up in a random commercial complex right down the street from the train station in Bridgehampton. Not exactly a place you expect to find a decent cup of coffee. His neighbors are a NAPA Auto parts supply store and Hampton Tank Gas. Imagine if somebody decided to open a coffee shop on Mariner Drive in Southampton next to all of the plumbers and electricians.
That’s what Andrew did. And it’s great.
The shop isn’t exactly the most organized looking place, but that’s the charm of it. When you walk in, you’ll notice large leather couches that have been beat up over the years, the floor is cement and there are bags of coffee beans underneath local art hanging haphazardly on the walls. In the backroom, a large roaster roasts away next to regulars who have claimed their territory on randomly placed couches and old chairs discussing the news event of the day.
And then there is Andrew, behind the bar, making coffee, like he has for decades. He has a smile, he has a twinkle in his eye and he may not know everything, and you can tell he’s seen it all in the Hamptons and is over it, but one thing he knows for sure and without question, is how to make an unbelievably good cup of coffee, day in day out, as naturally as it is for him to breathe.
And we all love him for it.
