Snowy Owl Sandwich

Manuel Ainzuain and Shayna Ferullo launched their third Snowy Owl coffee location in July 2021. Partners in marriage, parenting and business, Ferullo, says Ainzuain, “mans the back office and does all the marketing beautifully. We very much diversify our responsibilities according to our talents, and that has brought us success.”

In 2015, the pair founded their first shop in Brewster, a year-round coffee roastery and cafe. Nestled into the the front half of a now downsized herb and crystal shop, the location’s relaxed, boho vibe appealed to coffee lovers and welcomed their brewed-to-order beverages and fair trade beans. That the offerings expanded to include locally-made baked goods, soups, salads, and works by artisans were added perks.

Snowy Owl II roosted in Chatham in 2017, this time a pocket cafe minus the roastery. Perched among other businesses in a courtyard off of Main Street and open from April through First Night (Chatham’s New Year’s Eve event), the shop quickly found its tribe.

Solid in both businesses is the mission of goodwill towards the farmers who grow and harvest the beans. “Presently,” says Ainzuain, “we have direct trade relationships with farmers in three different regions of Peru. We can both improve the standard of living of the farmers that supply us with fair trade beans and connect our consumers with the realities of coffee farming.”

Snowy Owl always features their three popular coffee blends: Jaws, Captain Crosby and Brewster, plus a Swiss water-processed decaf. It is an ongoing challenge to maintain continuity during a period when political and social pressures have now been joined by COVID. If a blend features beans from Africa, they may need to sub in beans from the Congo to replace a crop originally grown in Ethiopia, while still preserving the same flavor profile. They also offer popular limited-edition runs of single-origin beans.

Join Snowy Owl’s HOOT Coffee Club, and as a member you may pre-order two to six bags of coffee per month in their automatic delivery program, shipped to you as whole beans or ground to your preference. $1 per shipment is donated each month to Grounds for Health, a nonprofit providing cervical cancer screenings to women in many of the communities that harvest coffee, tea, cut flowers and cocoa.

Since their start seven years ago, Snowy Owl’s ability to expand and grow its wholesale accounts was limited by a single five kilo capacity roaster at its Brewster location. “Now,” says Ainzuain, “Sandwich will be our headquarters with a thirty-five kilo roaster.”

Green in color, the raw beans arrive in New York City from their various points of origin abroad. Previously they remained in storage there until shipped to Brewster as needed for roasting. Now with this expansion, more bags can be stockpiled at any one time in Sandwich. Plus with a location just miles from the Sagamore bridge, servicing accounts throughout Massachusetts and New England becomes much more efficient.

The sparkling new Sandwich kitchen is where Snowy Owl is just beginning to create specialties influenced by Ainzuain’s Peruvian homeland. Elaine McNamara, one of Snowy Owl’s first Brewster customers, reached out years ago, pledging to bake for them if they should ever have a commercial kitchen. The empanadas now appearing on the daily menu launch the first of many planned sweet and savory roll-outs at the cafe. As in Brewster, soups and other lunch items prepared by local food artisans will also join the menu.

Nick Zaremba created the vivid mural on the wall depicting Snowy Owl’s fair trade sourcing of the beans from all corners of the globe. “He just stopped in, introducing himself as a local artist,” says Ainzuain, beaming, “and then created this beautiful work.”

The painting itself echoes the mission of Snowy Owl; to improve the lives of the farmers. Perhaps because it is a more year-round community than Brewster, Ainzuain senses that business in Sandwich should remain consistently strong. “When it is good for us,” he says, “then we can pay more to farmers and continue to close the circle towards more equitable wages for everyone.”