BELLVILLE — It’s rare to walk into a locally owned building that carries hardware, home decor and freshly roasted coffee beans.
But on Bellville’s Main Street, that’s exactly what customers find.
Whitney Smith has owned Rustik Market since 2016, a business she started in Ontario’s Servex Center. Smith moved Rustik Market into her husband’s store, Smith True Value Hardware, in September 2019.
Three years later, the Smiths welcomed another business expansion — Raising Roots Coffee Company.
“My in-laws put roots down in this town and raised their kids and now their son is wanting to take over the family business,” she said. “Our goal is to hopefully inspire our daughters — we have two young girls — to maybe take that over as well.”
Smith didn’t plan to add coffee roasting to her already busy schedule but Charlie Preston, owner of CmeBREW Coffee, asked if she’d like to take over his business while he looked for other activities to fill his time in retirement.
Preston said Smith trained with him for about six months learning how to roast coffee beans to different levels. Preston personally prefers lighter roasts but said “people like what they want, so I roasted it for them to the level that they liked.”
CmeBREW shipped roasts across the country in its more than 20 years in business. Preston said he could taste the difference of “good Arabica beans” in the coffee he drank, so he pursued his own roastery after retiring from being a firefighter.
“The supermarket coffee was not as good as it used to be — that was probably around 1975 when supermarket coffees began mixing in cheaper beans,” he said. “That taste was obvious to me, so I decided I would do some investigating into coffee roasting.”
Preston roasted to four different levels — light, medium, dark and darker. He said the difference between roasts can be a matter of seconds in the roaster.
Smith said some customers who used to buy Preston’s beans have told her Raising Roots’ roasts are darker than Preston’s used to be. Preston said he knew Smith wouldn’t copy his roasting exactly and is proud of the progress she’s made.
“She really wanted to learn and I just admired that,” he said. “She’s a wonderful young woman.”
Smith’s motto for Raising Roots Coffee is “for life’s rhythms,” signifying coffee’s versatility.
“You can have coffee in all life’s rhythms,” she said. “Your busy lifestyle, at night, when you have family get-togethers, in the morning, talking about business or life or planning — you can do all that over a cup of coffee.”
Smith has been selling her own coffee beans from Rustik Market since Aug. 15. She already sold Preston’s beans in her store, so regular customers know where the coffee shelf is. Local grocers Stoodt’s Fresh Market, Locust Corners Deli and Whitaker’s Natural Market also sell Raising Roots beans.
Smith’s roastery is across the street from Rustik Market and True Value Hardware in the building of a former gas station. She uses the space to store raw coffee beans, her roaster and shipping supplies.
Managing three businesses and raising a 10- and 8-year-old can be difficult, but she said the couple is learning when to schedule downtime and relying on community support.
“It is the sweetest town, we love our town so much,” Smith said. “We have great community support, and we’re right in the heart.”
If her life ever falls out of rhythm, Smith can always brew a cup of coffee to ease her mind.
Website: raisingrootscoffee.com
Facebook: Raising Roots Coffee Co
Buy Raising Roots Coffee at Bellville stores Rustik Market, Stoodt’s Fresh Market, Locust Corners Deli or Whitaker’s Natural Market.
Rustik Market and Smith True Value Hardware are open 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.
