Coffee Entrepreneur From Summit To Give Out Free Java At Shops

WESTFIELD, NJ — When Ahrre Maros was a teenager in Summit in the 1970s, he and a friend figured out how to make a mint cleaning chimneys around his town, as well as Ridgewood and Glen Rock. The son of Hungarian immigrants, he worked hard, eventually earning $35 an hour, a lot of money in those days. He took his entrepreneurial spirit to Whittier College and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

“That’s where I discovered coffee," he says. "The Santa Cruz Roasting Company." After college, he moved to Berkeley to live with a girlfriend and tasted the groundbreaking Peet's Coffee. Peet's was founded by Alfred Peet, a Dutchman who taught his coffee-roasting method to the founders of Starbucks in the 1970s.

Peet's father had brewed coffee in the Netherlands before World War II, and Peet, upon coming to America, famously said America's coffee tasted as bad as a war-rationed product. He founded his company in Berkeley 1966.

Maros heard, while working at Peet's, that Alfred was listed in the phone book. Like the go-getter he is, Maros dialed him up and asked him for advice.

"I said I was planning to go into the coffee business," Maros recounts, "and he said, in his Dutch accent, 'Don't.' "

Peet died in 2007 at age 87.

Maros worked in Berkeley until 1988, when he came back to Summit for his 10-year high school reunion. While there, he decided to stay. He says his parents (who have since passed away) were supportive of his starting a business.

This February, Maros celebrates the 30th anniversary of his Ahrre's Coffee company. He opened his first shop in Cranford on Feb. 10, 1990. He closed it four years later because he had also opened a shop in Westfield and was "competing with myself." He went on to open a shop in 1993 in Summit.

In 1996, Starbucks opened nine doors down from him in Summit, across from the train station, and "took half of my business away immediately," he said.

In August of 2012, Ahrre’s Coffee Roastery re-opened in the Mondo building in Summit. Three years later, he moved across the street and is now inside another business, the Wine List and Marketplace.

He came up with the idea to sell his product at a counter inside the wine store at 417 Springfield Ave., and approached the owner. Now both businesses are doing well as part of Summit's bustling downtown.

And he still owns his main shop at 104 Elm Street in Westfield, where the slogan is, "Ahrre's is fresher than theirs!"

In the year 2000, Maros also started a successful charity concert series called Coffee with a Conscience, and has won awards for his business.

Now, Ahrre plans to give away free coffee from Monday, Feb. 10 through Sunday, Feb. 16, in both stores (in Westfield and Summit), one cup per customer per visit.

He lives in Plainfield, where he roasts his coffee in an industrial space. He says he may someday open a coffee drive-through on Route 22 near Union, but that's far in the future. For now, he says, he's celebrating how far he's come.

When asked for coffee advice, he said, "Fresh roasted is always better than supermarket-bought." He said he has a lot of reasons to be grateful.

“People love coffee," he said. "It's a fun thing. When I have conversation with my customers, we’re talking about something fun. I make them a cappuccino, I may suggest a shot of a certain kind of syrup in it. It’s not an office job. It’s selling something cool.”

He invites all to come try his brew and enjoy the visit. "I want people to come," he said. "Come meet us and get used to [visiting]."

Find out more at Ahrre.com.

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