Retro Eighth Coffee & Acai ‘drives into Manitowoc’

Rich Palzewic

Staff

February 10, 2023

MANITOWOC – With a background in home renovation, Aubry Hassemer said she took the skills she learned to chase another dream of hers – opening her own coffee shop.

Hassemer’s dream became a reality in early December 2022 when she opened Retro Eighth Coffee & Acai in Manitowoc.
“Things are going well,” the 20-year-old Hassemer said. “Every week is busier than the last. I honestly didn’t expect this much support. When you first open a business, you’re hoping for the best.”

Hassemer grew up in Mishicot and graduated high school in 2020.

After that, she went to college for a brief time.

“I took 12 college credits to get my prerequisites for an x-ray tech position,” Hassemer said. “The program I wanted to get into was small, and they had a waitlist. When I didn’t get in that year, I said, ‘I can’t wait.’”

Describing herself as an “antsy person,” Hassemer said that’s when she moved into home renovations.

“I bought my grandpa’s house, fixed it up and made some money off that,” she said. “My boyfriend and I bought another house we fixed up and sold, and now we live in another house.”

Hassemer said she eventually got an associate’s degree in business with a finance emphasis from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay in spring 2022.

“Around that same time, we started working on this current location (of the coffee shop),” she said. “It used to be my boyfriend’s auto shop, but he moved to a larger location in June 2021. We used the building for storage until we moved into our bigger house. We were trying to figure out what to do with it.”

Hassemer said that sparked her vision to try something new.

Aubry Hassemer

“We like to travel and try different coffee shops – we find that a lot of fun and exciting,” she said. “You go into a different environment and get a feel for what the locals experience in that area. I felt like we needed a place around here that has a good quality cup of coffee.”

From there, Hassemer said she went to work setting things up – taking her time to make sure things were just right.

“I tried more than 40 roasters before I chose them,” she said. “I took time to invest in quality equipment and high-quality coffee. I wanted Retro to have a bigger city atmosphere in small-town Manitowoc. It’s a developing area – it’s a ways from Milwaukee, but I think (Manitowoc) is slowly starting to move toward the younger crowd. Having said that, we have a nice mix of customers who come in regularly.”

The coffee shop, located at 801 N. 8th St., has a retro theme – hence the name.

“We were driving through Indiana (before opening Retro), and we stopped at a coffee shop that had garage doors,” Hassemer said. “We thought that was a great idea – we were still throwing around the idea of what we wanted to do with this space, but obviously, we had the garage doors already in here. The garage doors are nice because we can open them in the warmer months for additional seating and have entertainment outside.”

The space also has diner-style tables, bright yellow chairs, retro wallpaper with an orange and brown pattern and concrete floors in the main area.

Hassemer said there is also a separate smaller area with a table and chairs and a sofa for patrons to relax.

“I wanted it to have a 50s, 60s and 70s theme,” she said. “It was hard finding retro furniture, but I think I have some nice stuff in here.”

Using her renovations experience, Hassemer said she did “quite a bit of work myself” inside.

The shop has recently begun offering coffee flights and acai bowls of the month. Photo courtesy of Retro Eighth Coffee & Acai

“I’ve learned along the way and watched videos,” she said. “Obviously, the garage doors and the windows were here, but we had people do the plumbing, electrical and HVAC. I did the wallpaper, painting and vinyl plank flooring. A lot of contractors are booked to the max, so even the guys we had working here were hopping from job to job.”

To add something more, Hassemer said the shop added acai bowls and a few other things to the menu.

She said acai is made with the frozen and mashed fruit of the açaí palm, which has berries described as having a creamy taste and a tartness from a high-acidity content.  

Hassemer said acai is served as a smoothie in a bowl or glass and is commonly topped with granola and banana, and then mixed with other fruits and guaraná syrup.  

“We traveled to Hawaii and loved the acai bowls,” Hassemer said. “We don’t have anything like this around here, so we wanted to add a niche item to the menu. We also recently added salmon cream cheese bagels and avocado toast.”

She said this month, Retro has begun offering coffee flights.

February’s flavors include toffee cold brew, chocolate-covered strawberry, vanilla rose and turtle mocha.

Hassener said Retro also offers a bowl of the month – with February’s being a chocolate-covered berry bowl.

The shop has recently begun offering coffee flights and acai bowls of the month. Photos courtesy of Retro Eighth Coffee & Acai

Hours for Retro Eighth Coffee & Acai are from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

“Once the weather gets warmer, we will most likely expand our Thursday, Friday and Saturday hours – probably until 9 p.m.,” Hassemer said.

More information on Retro Eighth Coffee & Acai can be found on its Facebook page – which includes a list of the shop’s monthly events.