Courtesy Reconstruction Roasters
A blank space looms on every bag of coffee from Reconstruction Coffee Roasters: “Stop & Re___.” The idea is to invite customers to slow down and "fill in the gap" with whatever they need.
"Coffee is more than a drink," the Villa Ridge–based coffee roaster notes on its website. "It’s a ritual that brings us together. It’s a reliable comfort that gives us the time, the space, and the energy we need to reconnect with old friends; to remake our plans; to reestablish bonds; to recenter our minds; to reflect on years past; to revive our good spirits. Coffee is a rite of community that reunites us and gives us the chance to reconstruct our worlds, each and every day."
Photo by Meredith Foster
With that in mind, co-founders Emily Kappesser, Clayton Smith, and Erin Smith (pictured at right) launched Reconstruction Coffee Roasters in September 2020. Since opening, the company has expanded into a full-fledged coffee roastery, which supplies local businesses, coffee-subscription members, connoisseurs, and fanatics alike with small-batch, artisanal coffees. Its owners hope to one day turn the roastery into a coffee bar space.
Siblings Clayton and Emily grew up in Villa Ridge, located at the southwest edge of the metro area, where their love of coffee started early. “We drank coffee milk in our bottles as children—literally,” says Clayton. “Our parents were big coffee lovers, so we were always around it.” A professor of marketing and fiction novelist by trade, Clayton began to explore the world of specialty coffee when he started dating Erin, a Broadway actress living in New York City. A southern California native, Erin developed her love of coffee through the extensive culinary scenes of California and New York City.
“Coffee wasn’t just an everyday necessity to me,” says Erin. “It was more of a treat, like an expansion of the culinary scene I was already really immersed in, similar to a cocktail bar or cool restaurant.”
After getting married, Erin and Clayton moved to Chicago and kicked around the idea of starting a family business. Both of them were full-time professionals in other fields, but there remained a desire to create a space where they could work together as their children grew up.
“Originally, we really wanted to create an experience that could transition from day to night,” says Erin. “We kept finding ourselves with this weird gap between coffee shops closing and bars opening, and wanting to fill that space.”
After reconnecting with Emily at a family wedding, the idea of starting a family coffee shop came to light. Emily, a seasoned barista–turned–photographer and videographer, was living in Seattle at the time. The three of them decided that the best first step was to roast their own coffee, which could one day be sold in their coffee shop. They all returned to Clayton and Emily’s Villa Ridge roots and got to work, successfully funding facility renovations through a Kickstarter campaign. The company's first bag of coffee was sold at a local farmers' market.
“We love the fact that the community was involved from the very origin of Reconstruction,” says Erin. “That support has only continued to get stronger as we’ve grown.”
Reconstruction’s efforts to provide the community with a reason to reconnect is a multi-generational family affair. The newly renovated roasting facility sits on a historic plot of Villa Ridge land owned by Clayton and Emily’s parents.
“We love that our family and our community have come together to produce this place,” says Emily. “It’s such a crazy world right now, and we truly believe that if things are going to bridge the gaps and knit back together, coffee is the way to do it.”
