Bucket List Coffee Roastery Café and Eatery is now open to the public after two years of being in development.
Owners Bobby and Kristina Chapelle and their family have opened Amherstburg’s newest coffee shop and café with the first day of service being last Friday. Mayor Michael Prue cut the ribbon and was joined by several other members of town council, family members of the Chapelles and other supporters.
Bobby said opening a coffee shop such as Bucket List was a dream for a long time. He thanked his family for supporting his vision and stated the family helps out wherever possible.
The Chapelle family relocated from Hamilton to Amherstburg and started looking for locations to set up shop. They believe they have a great spot at 79 Murray St., in the recently refurbished building at the corner of Murray St. and Ramsay St.
“We absolutely love the town,” said Bobby. “The kids love the town. We want to be part of the town. What better way than to feed them food and coffee?”
Bobby said they looked at several locations in Amherstburg and said they are partnered with great landlords. The original condition of the building caused concern but the job got done with indoor and outdoor dining options.
“We walked through it and said ‘how are we going to get this done?’,” he said. “It was in pretty bad shape. It took a year to get it to this state.”
His family was in the office coffee serving business in Oakville for 30 years but when his father took ill, they sold the business.
“I was left with nothing to do,” said Bobby.
Noting his dream to open a coffee shop and eatery, he turned to his wife in a café and decided to go ahead with it.
“I said if we don’t do it now, we’re never going to do it,” he said, noting he is now 42-years-old. “We sold everything to make this happen.”
Bucket List Coffee Roastery creates its own unique blends and also manufactures K-Cups for Keurig machines and soft pods for other coffee makers. The K-Cups are sold across Canada, he said.
“This is a remarkable place,” said Prue.
Prue recalled seeing the building being in a “delapidated” state, and he said he doubted it could be preserved though he called himself a supporter of heritage buildings.
“They said it was going to be saved. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I didn’t think it could be saved.”
Prue thanked the Chapelle family for choosing Amherstburg, joking that he will tell Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath that “we’ve got one of their star people here.” He added that he hopes the shop will be able to open other locations, but that they will always have the Amherstburg store.
“We want to thank you for what you’re doing,” he said.
Town's newest coffee shop celebrates its grand opening
By Ron Giofu
Comments