On the corner of Center Street and Old Dixie Highway stands the old Ferro Via consignment store. The building’s facade displays images of the Jupiter of yesteryear— folks sitting on the front of a steam locomotive. It’s fitting, then, that a shiny silver 1971 Airstream Safari trailer has set up shop here near the railroad tracks.
The vehicle isn’t just camping out; it’s a coffee shop. The Lokomotive (@thelokomotive), as it’s named, belongs to Johnathon “JP” Pezzino and his girlfriend, Sydney Jacobson, who had an idea to serve brews out of their vintage Airstream. They originally parked their business just a few blocks away, at 312 Center Street, last September. Moving to the current location was a natural progression, as Pezzino’s family purchased the old Ferro Via building more than a decade ago.
Classic is the name of the game at The Lokomotive, from the menu to the atmosphere. Pezzino says drinks are made traditionally and without artificial sweeteners or syrups—cappuccino, Americano, macchiato, espresso, drip coffee, and a small variety of lattes. They also serve croissants, classic or with Nutella, but they don’t plan on expanding the food options much further. “We want to focus on what we’re good at, and that’s the coffee,” says Pezzino. The old-school approach continues with the trailer, from its original, ’70s chrome exterior to an interior decked out in a cypress ceiling and western red cedar countertops, giving a cozy atmosphere to the shop’s “micro lounge.” “We think of it as a ‘coffee encounter,’” Pezzino says of imbibing in the indoor space. Patrons can enjoy their drinks on the custom-made couch that wraps around the trailer booth-style, with a small wooden table in the center.
Pezzino and Jacobson started brewing coffee around six years ago in their kitchen in Jupiter, letting family and friends sample it to help perfect their craft. “When we’re not working, all we do is go home and study and learn more about [brewing coffee],” says Pezzino. “We’re really stoked every single day to be doing this.”
The couple also has plans to take over Ferro Via and eventually open the location as a “specialty vendors market” (around the end of the year, they estimate). “It will be kind of like what we’re doing with the coffee shop but bringing that customer service and quality to other avenues like fresh fish and veggies, a bakery… just the classic market style,” says Pezzino.
The expansion is a natural extension of The Lokomotive—and gives new meaning to that mural on Ferro Via’s wall. Pezzino explains: “The steam locomotive pulls the rest of the cars; they don’t go anywhere without it. So The Lokomotive is the first part of our business, pulling the rest in tow. We’re right at the railroad tracks—and also, ‘ferrovia’ means ‘iron road’ in Italian.”
105 Center Street, Jupiter
Facebook Comments