Brewing coffee, conversations and memories
The smell of freshly-ground coffee beans welcomes customers when they step into the homey, blast-from-the-past Open Door Coffee Company inside the old brick Saywell building of downtown Hudson.
Baristas greet customers from behind an old-style soda fountain, where five maroon bar stools are lined up, single file, in front of the gleaming marble counters.
Since opening in 2014, the shop has become a mainstay for the community. Co-owners Deborah and Charles Pinnell didn’t initially intend to run the shop, though.
“ When Saywell’s Drugstore closed [in 2005], the town kind of lost that meeting place for everybody,” Deborah Pinnell says. “So we wanted that back again and that’s what we hoped to achieve.”
Originally working at the Hudson Fine Art and Framing Company’s gallery in the space next door, the plan was for Deborah to jumpstart a coffee shop as a way to make use of the extra square footage of the gallery.
She initially meant to turn the business over to someone else and return to work in the gallery. But—two years later—she has yet to return full time. “It’s just been so gangbusters over here that I never went back over,” Pinnell says.
The Saywell building was originally built in 1832 by one of the town’s original founders, Julian Lusk. Over the next hundred years, it would serve as a family home, local hotel, an entertainment hall, and a family-owned and run drugstore. As a drugstore, it was a place for the town’s people to talk, laugh and simply feel at home.
In 1892, Hudson’s downtown faced a fire that destroyed an entire block of businesses. A second fire broke out nearly 20 years later. “The 1911 fire started from the south and kept coming north,” Pinnell says. “And this big brick building actually stopped the fire, so the rest of the town going north of us was saved.”
The old building’s history, reputation and memories it garnered in the Hudson community over the years prompted Pinnell and her husband to bring a little piece of the town back to life for its people. Through personal experience with restoration projects, she was able to utilize many of the unique elements that make the space wonderful to pass a morning or afternoon in. “All the tables and chairs are old pieces that we have redone and refurbished ourselves,” Pinnell says.
For many of the original drugstore patrons who frequented during the 90-plus years the drugstore was in business, memories were made over the soda fountain counter. “This area was very well-loved by the community,” Pinnell says. “[We] wanted to keep all the old feeling about it but also bring in a new feeling, something [fresh].”
In its newest reincarnation, the coffee joint is not only a fun place to meet with friends—it also has a scrumptious menu that makes mouths water. The eclectic menu boasts more than just the traditional coffee, tea and pastry selections. Fresh coffee is hand ground and brewed daily, with drip and pour over options available. A house special—and personal favorite of Pinnell in the hot summer months—is the cold brewed iced coffee. Unlike some cool brews that are simply poured over ice cubes on hot summer days, this drink is concocted carefully over a span of many hours. It is actually brewed in cold water for 19 hours and is “smooth and divine,” according to Pinnell.
There are many delicious snacks to pair with your coffee at Open Door. These include an almond cloud cookie, peanut butter chocolate cookie, frosted chocolate cupcake, and carrot cake muffins. Pinnell says the shop will be expanding their array of drink, breakfast and snack items soon.
Staying true to the building's roots, the Pinnells have tried to once again provide a gathering place for Hudsonites. “They just love and have such good memories of an old meeting place,” Pinnell says. “That’s what we wanted to bring back with our coffee shop, and I think we have.”