Blue Harbor Coffee to take over Jumpin’ Jack’s Java spot
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HAMPTON — Coffee will be served once again on the first floor of the Hampton House Hotel as Blue Harbor Coffee prepares to move into the former Jumpin’ Jack’s Java space.
Blue Harbor’s Sunrise Café will be selling cold brew coffee to beachgoers at 333 Ocean Boulevard starting next spring. It will also be selling hot coffee blends and breakfast sandwiches available in their downtown Hampton location, which opened in 2019. The owners plan to open the beach shop from May to October.
Owners Coskun Yazgan and Stephanie Bergeron said they are also considering acquiring a liquor license to sell a limited alcohol menu. They said that would include espresso martinis, beer and wine and staying open until the early evening.
The location was home to Jumpin’ Jack’s for more than a decade before its closure was announced earlier this year. Blue Harbor owners said they thought the space was an opportunity to keep the coffee brewing there. They signed a lease on their beach location this month and will be working on the space until about mid-February, aiming for a grand opening in May.
“It’s a challenge, but we are excited,” Yazgan said. “It’s a beautiful spot. We love the neighborhood.”
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Blue Harbor Coffee roots go back to Turkey
Blue Harbor has been building its following in downtown Hampton since 2019 when Yazgan and Bergeron took over a space at 446 Lafayette Road. The space had seen turnover in prior years, previously the home of the wine and cheese store Baron Forester.
Before Blue Harbor, Yazgan immigrated in 2002 from Istanbul, Turkey, where his grandfather and father ran coffee houses. Yazgan’s older brother Yalcin had already come to the United States to open Caffe Kilim in Portsmouth. Upon his arrival to the U.S., Yazgan spent years working in coffee shops around New England to perfect his roasting before opening a place of his own.
Blue Harbor endured the COVID-19 pandemic in its first year open, then saw its following grow while picking up awards like the New Hampshire Magazine Best of New Hampshire reader’s poll. In 2021, Yazgan expanded into the former Airfield Café kitchen space to make a production facility.
That doubled Blue Harbor’s output of coffee and allowed them to consider expanding further. Yazgan and Bergeron began looking for places to sell coffee at the beach, including pickup windows.
“How can we introduce our coffee to more folks?” Bergeron said.
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Jumping Jack’s Java at Hampton Beach announces closure
Yazgan and Bergeron saw a new opportunity in April when Jumpin’ Jack’s announced the shop was closing after more than a decade in business. The café was open for 13 years but temporarily closed two years ago.
The owners, Nick and Michelle Birmbas, told customers in a social media post they were trying to reopen in 2023. In April, however, they announced they decided to close for good.
Yazgan and Bergeron said they always liked Jumpin’ Jack’s. When they learned of their closing, they decided they wanted to try and move into the space to keep coffee served in that part of the beach.
“It was kind of a no-brainer,” Bergeron said.
They reached out to the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce for help in connecting with the owners of the building, and were introduced to landlord Kristin Schaake-MacKinnon. Yazgan said they were offered the space quickly and agreed to sign a lease starting in November.
“It was a done deal in my head,” Coskun said.
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Yazgan said he has talked with the Birmbases about how they ran the coffee shop and what the flow of customers was like over the years. He and Bergeron said they are looking for a more diverse customer base with people visiting Hampton Beach from across the country.
The space will be outfitted with seating at the windows that wrap around the shop. Yazgan also needs to install a coffee station, self-serve station, and other infrastructure similar to what he has at the downtown location.
Yazgan and Bergeron said they considered bringing martinis to the beach location to fit in with the atmosphere of the vacation destination. He said he is considering having live music in the afternoon for people to enjoy cocktails, possibly staying open until about 8 p.m.
Blue Harbor already sells plenty of cold coffee brews out of their downtown location. Yazgan said he can’t imagine how much would sell at the beach in the warm weather.
He also said Hampton Beach continues to see improvements that make it enticing for a business owner to move to. Sal Lupoli, who owns the Hampton Beach Casino complex and other properties, has said he plans to bring a significant development to his properties that could reshape the beach.
“We want to take advantage of it ourselves,” Yazgan said. “We want to be part of the change here, too.”
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