Uncommon Coffee keeps Uncommon Grounds spirit alive in Essex, with new twists – Burlington Free Press

Maya Crowley opened shop in her hometown, where customers include former teachers and patrons of place that inspired her business, Uncommon Grounds Wochit

ESSEX The name and approach of a new business at The Essex Experience might seem very familiar to local coffee fans.

Another new business came to the rebranded Essex Shoppes and Cinema complex when Uncommon Coffee opened Sept. 3. The shop owned by Maya Crowley serves coffee, tea and non-caffeinated beverages. The latter includes one Crowley was drinking on a recent afternoon, The Librarian, a concoction of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice, house-made rosemary syrup and seltzer. The drink is named for the wood-paneled book nook inside the former Under Armour shop on Essex Way.

Lorna Dielentheis, coffee-bar manager at Uncommon Coffee, pours a beverage at the Essex business Sept. 30, 2020.(Photo: BRENT HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS)

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Uncommon Coffee also serves breakfast and baked goods from its full-service kitchen/bakery. Menu choices include a build-your-own breakfast sandwich, a breakfast pizza and a paisley hash so named because of the color created by the amalgam of beets, sweet potato and herbs.

Crowley served for four years as manager of Uncommon Grounds, the Burlington coffee shop that was an institution on the Church Street Marketplace for more than a quarter-century before owner Brenda Nadeau decided it was time to retire. Crowley wanted to keep the spirit of the original shop going and opened her new business in her hometown.

Maya Crowley, owner of Uncommon Coffee, stands outside the Essex business Sept. 30, 2020.(Photo: BRENT HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS)

She brought Uncommon Grounds employees including coffee-bar managerLorna Dielentheisand coffee roaster Rob Maynard to Uncommon Coffee. While the old shop and the new one have both had in-house coffee-roasting machines, Crowley said the approach at Uncommon Coffee is a little different. Crowley, whose father is a Vietnamese refugee, emphases espresso and coffee poured through a Vietnamese filter known as a phin.

The 2011 Essex High School graduate said Uncommon Coffee is on the edge of the coffee desert between a few coffee spots in Essex Junction and the relative lack of coffee places heading east on Vermont 15. She said downtown Burlington, with fewer local stores and a long-delayed mall-renovation project, doesnt have the same feel it had in the heyday of Uncommon Grounds.

The thought of coming back to Essex was really meaningful to me, Crowley said. Theres a lot of wanting to make this community feel like a community rather than a suburb of Burlington.

The library at Uncommon Coffee in Essex, shown Sept. 30, 2020.(Photo: BRENT HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS)

Crowley said work began on Uncommon Coffee in December with hopes of opening in early June. She said work crews had to put trenches in the concrete floor to install plumbing for the caf, and those trenches remained for a while after pandemic-related delays slowed construction.

Uncommon Coffee is open at the moment only for in-person or online ordering for take-out service. Theres a smattering of tables outside for those ready to embrace the fall chill in the air.

Maya Crowley, foreground, and Lorna Dielentheis work behind the counter Sept. 30, 2020 at Uncommon Coffee in Essex.(Photo: BRENT HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS)

Uncommon Coffee, 19 Essex Way, Essex. 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. http://www.uncommonvt.com.

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.

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Uncommon Coffee keeps Uncommon Grounds spirit alive in Essex, with new twists - Burlington Free Press