Mugs on Main Brings Coffee to Downtown Riverhead

When the idea to open a coffee shop started percolating in the imaginations of Kassandra Watkins and Jeff Schaeffer, it didn’t take much to settle on a location.

“We have been in and out of Riverhead for most of our lives,” Watkins said during a recent interview at the new Mugs on Main. “Seeing the progress, seeing the little glimpses of what Riverhead could become and what it has been slowly evolving into was something we really wanted to be a part of.”

And with the opening of Mugs on Main on Saturday, April 1, Watkins and Schaeffer got their wish. The coffee shop is one of the latest additions to downtown Riverhead that aims to increase foot traffic and breathe new life into Main Street.

It also aims to caffeinate — or decaf, if you prefer — its customers with an ample selection of carefully chosen roasts, specialty lattes and espresso drinks and satisfy their hunger with tasty breakfast and lunch bites.

For the coffee purists, there is the house blend — a custom recipe created for Mugs on Main by White Coffee of Long Island City. Watkins said sourcing the coffee was one of the most important, and earliest decisions she made for the shop and she worked closely with the roaster to develop a medium roast that would be the backbone of the café. What they ended up with is a Central and South American blend with African and Indonesian beans added in to smooth out the acidity “to a nice floral finish,” according to Watkins.

Mugs on Main’s cold brew is a single-sourced Kenyan coffee “that never sees heat” and is steeped for more than 20 hours to deliver a flavorful “sweet and citrusy” drink.

The menu features several signature lattes developed by Watkins, as well.

“I wanted a diverse offering of flavors, but something that was a little more exotic than what you can get at a Dunkin or a Starbucks or a deli … a little bit more fun,” the owner said. That thinking led to the creation of the “Lavender Daze,” a lavender and vanilla latte with actual lavender blossoms on top and the “Churro,” a caramel and cinnamon swirled latte topped with cinnamon and sugar and a drizzle of cajeta, or slow-cooked Mexican caramel sauce.

“I wanted to do something with familiar flavors, but a little more luxurious than what you get at a run of the mill coffee shop,” Watkins said.

The menu also includes hot chocolate and mocha lattes made from chocolate curls, not powders or sauces, and a variety of hot and cold teas.

Watkins and Schaeffer, a husband-and-wife team, leaned into their background and expertise to develop the business, and the menu. On one side, there is Watkins, who has a master’s degree in business and spent 13 years working for Starbucks training the company’s East End managers and administering its advanced coffee knowledge curriculum, the Coffee Master program. On the other, there is Schaeffer, who says he “grew up sleeping on wine racks in the back of a pizzeria,” and worked for Sysco foods for many years before opening Peconic County Brewing in Riverhead in 2021.

Schaeffer takes the lead on the food menus and aims at creating dishes just as fun as the beverages. For starters, there are few dishes at all. Most of the offerings, which are evolving weekly, are served in mugs.

For breakfast, Mugs customers can get a “Broken BEC” or bacon, egg and cheese with brioche bread, shrimp and cheesy grits, overnight oats and “Mugs Benny” in a mug plus plated items such as a deep dish pancake with berries, crème brulee oatmeal, a vegan egg sandwich, avocado toast, and corned beef hash with a fried egg.

At lunch, Mugs on Main is serving up gumbo with shrimp and sausage, lobster bisque, mac and cheese with bacon and “Chix Pot Pie” complete with a pastry crust in a mug, among other things, as well as grain bowls, salads and sandwiches.

Food prices run from $7 to $14 each.

She knows coffee. She drinks it black and won’t even reheat a cold cup because doing so degrades the brew. He had his first latte a couple of weeks ago.

Together, they are building, learning, and hoping to see Mugs on Main become a downtown destination with staying power.

Customers won’t go away hungry, either.