Michael L. Diamond

@mdiamondapp

ASBURY PARK - After trying his hand as a journalist and copywriter, James Caverly decided career stability wasn't in the cards for him – or anyone, for that matter – so he studied his options.

He kept thinking about a corporate event that he had attended, where the coffee was so good that he felt superhuman, and he began obsessing. He studied the difference between good coffee and bad. He delved into what he would need to turn it into a business. And he made the leap.

"In business, you need a niche," Caverly said. "I never really had one. I said, 'There's a niche. Fresh coffee.'"

Five years later, his idea is paying off. Booskerdoo Fresh Roasted Coffee Co. plans to expand this spring into 2,000 square feet of space on Memorial Drive here, where it will house its headquarters, its roasting operation and its bakery to keep up with its steady growth.

In doing so, the newly rebranded Booskerdoo Coffee and Baking Co. will join a surge of independently owned businesses – ranging from craft breweries to furniture stores – that could turn northern Asbury Park into the next phase of the city's redevelopment. Think of it as Cookman Avenue without the parking headaches.

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'Burst of energy'

"I think there is a huge burst of energy that's coming to the northwest," said Sonja O'Brien, a real estate agent with The John C. Conover Agency in Asbury Park and a local resident. "It's not that it wasn't safe (before) . ... It's just that we had to have places to walk to. Now we do."

Booskerdoo is owned by Caverly and his wife, Amelia. They are both 34 years old, and they live in Ocean Township with their daughter, Claire, who is 2. They're expecting their second child in June.

The company has stores in Monmouth Beach, Fair Haven and Middletown. They wouldn't disclose its annual sales, but said they have grown by at least 50 percent a year since they opened in 2011. And they have 21 full- and part-time employees.

Their story might sound familiar to the millennial generation that has had to be resourceful in the face of the Great Recession.

In lean times, they figured out a way to get by. While James used savings and borrowed money from friends and family to launch the business, Amelia taught full time, giving them a modest, but steady, salary and health insurance.

They called the business Booskerdoo, a term of endearment that Amelia used to refer to James. And they tried to differentiate themselves by selling what they said was coffee that was higher quality than, say, Dunkin' Donuts or Wawa or even Starbucks.

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Catching some breaks

They built a loyal following, and they caught some breaks along the way. The Monmouth Beach store, slightly elevated from its neighbors, escaped the worst of superstorm Sandy and reopened after five days. They opened the Fair Haven store in June 2013 and found that the demand for baked goods was so strong that Amelia could leave her job teaching social studies at the Ranney School in Tinton Falls and join the business full time.

Running out of room, they searched the past year for a new location and settled on the Shops at Sunset Point, a shopping center on Memorial Drive and Sunset Avenue with room for 10 stores that is being redeveloped by Asbury Park-based Ron-Vin Properties.

"There's so much going on on Cookman, which is tremendous," Amelia Caverly said. "But we really wanted to be part of the revitalization of the northern end of Asbury."

Booskerdoo will have an expanded menu for breakfast and lunch. It will have room for customers to sit. And it will be among a new crop of businesses in the northwest part of the city – loosely on Main Street and Memorial Drive, between Second Avenue to the south and Sunset Avenue to the north.

It's a section of the city that long has been home to Frank's Deli & Restaurant and Georgies Bar, but now dotted with independently owned upstarts. There's Asbury Park Roastery and Dark City Brewing Co. There's Lentil Tree and Chocolate Sage.

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'That's where I live'

And there's Parkemoor, a furniture and design store.

Ty Christian, Parkemoor's owner, said he operated furniture stores in Annapolis, Maryland, but he closed them in 2014 after he and his husband bought a home in Asbury Park. When it came time to open again, he decided Cookman Avenue was too expensive and didn't have enough parking for his vendors and customers.

He turned instead to the Shops at Sunset Point, where he opened in November.

During the search for space, "I came back to Main Street and Memorial Drive," Christian said. "I'm north Asbury. That's where I live. I want to be part of revitalizing north Asbury. That's why I'm here."

Booskerdoo faces the obstacles of any small-business owner. Its competition is fierce; a Dunkin' Donuts is across the street. But its expansion is timely. Coffee drinkers, who moved from Folgers and Maxwell House to Starbucks, are moving again to mom-and-pop roasters, said Adam Bossie, chief executive officer of Coffee Afficionado, a wholesale coffee roaster based in Marlboro.

Case in point: Peet's Coffee & Tea recently acquired Intelligentsia and Stumptown – two coffee roasters that have made their name based on quality.

There's more room to grow; Bossie himself is looking to open a retail store in New York City, he said.

"I'm curious to see who's the next person to grow a family brand to a mid-size corporation and still maintain its roots," Bossie said. "Where there's still opportunity is to be a great, family-run operation."

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On the west side

The Caverlys don't appear to be in a rush. They stood in their empty space on a cold January day as Claire ran to the window to look at a passing train. They are content to be on the west side of the tracks.

And they are eager to see what happens when the weather gets warmer and they can open their new store.

"We love being part of the community and not just a place to, you know, grab a cup of coffee," Amelia Caverly said.

"I think that's more true today than ever," James Caverly said. "We're working from home, all alone in our home office, and people don't sit on their porches anymore because of (air conditioning). The fact that they can come to a place every morning and see their friends, that's more important now than ever."

Michael L. Diamond; 732-643-4038; mdiamond@gannettnj.com