UNH alumna’s coffee shop thriving in Newmarket

Sarah Howard, UNH alumna class of 2004, and her business partner Jack O'Sullivan bought the Big Bean, a coffee shop and breakfast cafe located in Newmarket, in 2006.
Deciding to purchase the well-established café that had already been up and running for nine years was a spur of the moment decision for Howard and O'Sullivan, who had been friends since high school and were frequent customers at the Big Bean prior to acquiring it.
The public didn't know that the Big Bean was looking for new ownership or that the previous owner was looking for just the right couple to inherit it.

"He had a vision when he started it, and it ended up being a laid back kind of sale," Howard said.

Howard graduated with a degree in English and wasn't seriously looking to open a restaurant when the local coffee spot fell into her lap, but somehow it was right.
"I liked that it was small, a name everyone knew, appealing to the college group, a great little place that needed some work," Howard said.

Howard and O'Sullivan had their own vision when they took over the Big Bean, and to incorporate that they made a few changes. First, they committed to making everything from scratch.

Then they put in place a rule that in order to work in the restaurant, an employee must start in the back and work their way up to the front.

Now every worker starts as a grill cook or an expeditor (someone who arranges the food), which means that all the waitstaff knows everything about the food because they have at one point been the person who prepared it. Essentially, the staff is on even ground at the Big Bean.

"I wanted to make it fair," Howard said. "In most restaurants, the people in the back slave away, and the people in the front make all the money."

Many of the products used at the Big Bean are from local farms, especially in the summer.
While the Big Bean is famous for hearty breakfasts, it also caters to the growing vegan and vegetarian lifestyles. The Big Bean also tries to be environmentally friendly: all of its to-go products and packaging are compostable.

"I would love, in time, to switch everything over to organic and local," Howard said, although he noted that the move to all-organic would be costly.

For seasonal, local and organic options, Big Bean customers can always look to the specials menu, which always showcases interesting names for original dishes.

But what sets the Big Bean apart is the community that has built up around it.

 "It's nice working for your friends," employee Jocelyn Cassavaugh said. "We know mostly everyone who comes in by name, and they know us by name."

"I like working with young people; you meet a lot of people from the Newmarket community, young and old, and get to know the regulars," employee Lily Finnigan said. "We're more wholesome than the Friendly Toast."

Howard and O'Sullivan employ a small staff of about nine people, but Howard said there's a different challenge to owning a small business like the Big Bean.

"Getting everyone that works for you to see that same vision you have, until you find those people; it's hard, getting those people to care, to carry out that dream for you," she said.
Howard still has plans for improvements.

"In my mind the work's never done," she said.

However Howard may feel, many UNH students, including Amaryth Gass, like the Big Bean just the way it is.

"I love the fact that I can go to a business that is not only wicked delicious and super focused on serving local foods," Gass said, "but also has a strong emphasis on building a strong community, not only inside but also outside the kitchen."