There have been many success stories floating around this year of businesses making lemons out of lemonade, post-pandemic. Whether opening up brand new businesses, serving patrons online, or adopting safer customer-service strategies to ease the mind of locals, the neighborhood businesses show up for its regulars. One in particular is sustaining not only itself, but also the community at large. Winfield Street Coffee (winfieldcoffee.com), which opened up a Stamford location in 2019, announced this year the launch of its new coffee truck. While taking coffee on-the-go to the max, it is also lending a helping hand to those most in need.
“The core of what we do is always proving value to our community,” says owner Breno Donatti. “I know that as long as we are providing value, our customers will always come back. So our plan to thrive during this time was two-fold: First, we would start a meal-donation program [see it at winfieldcoffee.com/giving-back] to leverage our resources and help feed the local shelters and homeless population that didn’t have anywhere to turn to when Covid hit. And, two, we would invest on a fleet of mobile operations to become ‘pandemic proof.’ Basically, if we are able to operate outdoors, with a smaller menu and with the flexibility of moving to wherever customers need us to be, that would be a golden combination. The Winfield Coffee Truck is our first truck and will help us accomplish the two goals: Keep serving the homeless community and shelters as we have been doing and be able to serve our customers wherever they are located or wherever they need us.”
The look of the truck conveys simplicity and efficiency, functioning as a straightforward grab and go, without sacrificing the extras that make Winfield innovative. Winfield partnered with longtime branding partners Box 8 Creative for the design and plans to utilize its potential in many different locations.
“We are hoping to park the truck on a different neighborhood every two months to expand our reach and promote our brand,” says Donatti. “We will also be available for private parties and events. Lots of weddings happening now post-Covid and they all need a good coffee bar!” It provides the same great crowd pleasers—such as the peanut butter mocha, iced cappuccinos, nitro cold brews, lox bagels and hungry man sandwiches—but on wheels. Additions to the menu are in the works.
The newest development to come out of Winfield demonstrates how businesses here continue to push the boundaries and lift up other members of the community. “Our Stamford location is a great example of creativity and flexibility in action,” Donatti remarks. “We use that flagship location to showcase local artisans, artists, entrepreneurs, musicians, churches, fitness instructors, bakers and so much more. Because, at our core, we really are a community-oriented company, and there is no other way I would rather run this business.”