What started as a coffee-infused dream turned into a small pop-up success for cousins and Tiverton-natives Tom Amaral and Colby Machado. Now, their small business, No Vacancy, is expanding in size and in permanence; no longer at Mission, they’ve moved next door to Mission’s sister shop, Utility, for expanded space and hours.
“I got into coffee when I worked at The Nitro Bar pre-COVID,” Amaral explains, saying how he quickly became fascinated by “all the science behind it [the drink].” He taught himself about sourcing and roasting beans, and his passion for something as innocuous as the coffee bean alerted Machado that his cousin’s creativity was something that should be followed.
“We’ve always had some sort of business together,” Machado remembers. He gives the example of their Tiverton High School senior project: a t-shirt business. But it wasn’t just Amaral’s focus on coffee that snagged Machado’s business sense – it was his “drive.” Coffee had Amaral in its grip so tightly that he eventually procured “a bag of coffee that he roasted out of an old bread maker with a heat source in the side” to show Machado. It was then that things clicked for the cousins. This wasn’t a hobby. This was talent, research, and focus. This was business.
Amaral’s passion and research had him taking a deeper dive into the chemical reactions that make coffee’s flavor profile so familiar and adaptable. Coffee can be treated like a cocktail – the beans are the base “liquor,” and the flavor profile becomes moldable to the added ingredients. A café latte differs from a flat white which differs from a classic cappuccino, but these coffees all share the same basic ingredients: espresso, milk, and, for two out of the three, milk foam. Fancier flavor profiles simply need other ingredients. Just as a classic gin and tonic can be made into something more complex, so, too, can a cup of coffee.
This is the core idea driving Amaral’s and Machado’s menu. Coffee should be unique. Coffee should be fun. Specialty drinks at No Vacancy include the Orange 3.0, which “tastes like an Orange Julius,” Machado describes. The drink, which includes blood oranges, basil, espresso, and tonic, “has a color that almost looks like blueberries” due to the blood orange juice mixing with the coffee, Amaral explains. He is also trying to expand No Vacancy’s menu to unique teas to be more inclusive to non-coffee drinkers. Teatime indulgers might try the London Smog, a drink that combines Early Grey black tea and espresso cream. Machado jokes that Amaral should have a “lab coat in the back with the roasters” for all the wild yet precise flavor experimentation he does with the beloved morning drinks.
It doesn’t take long for Amaral to perfect these new flavor ideas, either. He “make[s] it once or twice, tweaking a couple things here or there,” and if it doesn’t work after that, he and Machado scrap that idea and look for the next opportunity. A memorable flavor failure was root beer-flavored coffee. “We tried that so many times,” Machado laughs. It was not meant to be.
Despite both cousins’ creativity and passion, both agree that the Mission team has been incredibly helpful in growing their coffee brand – “like a mama bear with two baby cubs,” Machado emphasizes. Their business started as a short-term pop-up last April, a local coffee source to compliment Mission Mornings and Mission’s award-winning breakfast sandwich. They created a custom coffee blend for Utility, and as their success, popular demand, and creative drive to expand their playful menu grew, No Vacancy needed more space. The cousins have grown the pop-up into a small enterprise.
“What we had before was a coffee cart made of plywood and dreams,” Machado says. Now, the new space within Utility will showcase a new coffee bar built by Amaral, seating, and more extensive menu. No Vacancy will host their grand opening in Utility Thursday, April 10th, from 6-8 p.m. Guests will revel in coffee, live music, and can sample No Vacancy’s coffee stout collaboration with Reject’s Beer Co. – the flavor of the alcoholic drink is based on their Campfire Latte (espresso, smoked salt, maple syrup, and milk).
For those wanting a more classic coffee shop experience, guests are welcome back the next morning for No Vacancy’s official opening day. The coffee pop-up will be open Thursday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. all year, and with Amaral and Machado looking to expand their hours in the summer.
