“I blame my sister for this,” says Bret Goldin '92, who at the age of twenty-five owns four coffee houses in the Capital District. “She bought me one of those home cappuccino and espresso makers and all this gourmet coffee.”
After graduating with a degree in political science and economics, Goldin was working at the Open Door Bookstore on Jay Street and applying for graduate school and jobs. One day, he noticed a vacant space near the Open Door and thought that it
would make a nice cafe (he had just returned from a trip to New Mexico, where he had fallen in love with a newsstand cafe in Santa Fe).
“I knew I loved cafes, I always wanted to own my own business, so I just started asking a lot of questions,” he says. “I
had no clue what I was getting into. The only retail experience I had was at the Open Door, and the only restaurant experience I had was eating in them.”
But Goldin kept asking questions and started reading tradejournals. He would stay up nights with his friends, coming up with ideas and thinking up names for his cafe. On one of those late nights, the name of Goldin's future business was born-Caffe Dolce.
Dolce-the Italian word for sweet-just seemed to work. “La Dolce Vita is one of my favorite films,” he says.
The Schenectady Economic Development Corp. helped him draw up business plans, his father helped him financially, and a family friend who is a lawyer provided advice. Before he knew it, Goldin owned and operated his own business.
Caffe Dolce opened on Oct. 2, 1993, and since then Goldin has opened Caffe Dolce Coffee House and the newly-opened Caffe Dolce Express, a small take-out stablishmentboth in Albany-and Caffe Dolce in Troy.
Goldin says that being young and being a Union graduate have both helped. He's one of the few Union grads, he says, “that didn't write off Schenectady immediately.” He also says Caffe Dolce opened right as the “coffee craze” was hitting the Northeast, and it's the only shop on Jay Street open past six p.m.
The original shop on Jay Street was put together by Goldin and his friends and fam
ily. The larger Albany and Troy establishments have both been professionally designed.
Besides the name, there is one other thing that all of the cafes share-they all serve as an outlet for local artists and musicians. There are “open mike nights” for musicians, poetry readings, and live music on Friday, Saturday, and some Sunday evenings. And the walls are ever-changing with the work of area artists, including Union students and professors.
As Goldin has expanded the number of cafes, he has also expanded the menu and made other changes. Caffe Dolce will begin roasting its own coffee beans, and the menu has expanded from just sweets and snacks to sandwiches, salads, and other lunch items. Smoking, once permitted in the Jay Street cafe, has been eliminated, helping to attract the older business crowd during the days. Goldin has also recently hired a general manager, who will work at all stores, as well as a personal secretary/administrative assistant.
“I sometimes feel like I'm in way over my head,” he says. “I never thought I would need a secretary.”
Goldin's success has come with its share of problems and challenges, of course, such as cash flow and management difficulties, but he says, “I love it. It's really helped me with things like interpersonal communication. In just about every aspect this has been a good thing.”
Sometime in the future, Goldin would like to begin a business design consulting firm, where he would help entrepreneurs design every aspect of a business-from the concept to how the place of business would be designed. For now, though, the success of his business and the attention it has gotten in the Capital District is sometimes a little overwhelming.
“It still freaks me out,” he says. “I'm just some guy selling coffee.”