Phoenicia’s newest coffee shop serves beans roasted on a century-old cast-iron machine, and its owners want you to try for yourself.
Robert and Adele Genovese held a soft opening for Good Boy Catskills on Oct. 14. The coffee has a distinctive taste, Robert said, which he credits partly to the seasoning of the Gothot roaster in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where the beans are roasted.
For 15 years, the couple made frequent trips from their home in New Jersey to a weekend home in Andes, drawn by the landscape and its people. They decided to move closer to their new shop in the Shandaken hamlet.
“It was really a matter of having some real quality time with our kids, and watching them grow up in an environment where you have people that are really salt of the earth,” Robert said. “Not only was it about the outdoors, but it was a lot about the people that are up here, and then being able to connect with them.”
Robert started working behind the counter at Milady’s, his family’s restaurant in Greenwich Village, at about age 5. He recalled the school bus dropping him off so he could help his parents run the dive bar, and said child labor laws did, in fact, exist at the time.
“You start taking care of customers and you kind of learn what hospitality is all about,” Robert said. “And it’s really an extension of people’s homes, where they can go and feel comfortable, and right at home.”
Adele grew up in Palermo, Sicily, and moved to the United States when she was 9. Her background as a makeup artist and her roots in what she called a hospitality-based culture made her a natural fit at Local Coffee, the cafe Robert opened in Montclair, New Jersey, in 2017.
“It really took what I do and what I know to another level, and we really created a perfect little ecosystem between the two of us,” Robert said of Adele.
The couple sold Local Coffee in 2023. Robert said he spent 10 years developing the concept for the New Jersey cafe, studying coffee culture through classes in Portugal, Costa Rica, Italy, and elsewhere. He wanted to understand how different cultures approach coffee, from brewing to roasting.
“What we did with Local in New Jersey was introduced best-in-class coffee, but also best-in-class service and community. With Local, we really focused on community as much as we did the coffee,” he said.
Local Coffee offered public safety programs, a residency that brought a new artist’s work to the walls each month, and outreach to high schools.
Chego, nicknamed “baby hippo,” is the dog on Good Boy Catskills’ logo. The idea came from Local Coffee, whose logo shows the couple’s other dog, Max, riding a Vespa. Robert said they liked what the image conjured in people’s minds.
Adele, Robert, and Chego run Good Boy Catskills on their own, and they don’t plan to hire anyone for the foreseeable future.
“They’re great people,” said Zach Veitch, one of the owners of Plaza 28, where the shop is located. “We’re looking to get a couple of more good businesses that’ll just support the community, long-term tenants.”
The plaza has two vacant spaces, which the owners hope to fill with customer-facing storefronts. Businesses that don’t draw walk-in customers do little for the plaza’s other shops, Robert said.
“The day they opened, people were drawn to them. They didn’t even publicize that they were opening,” said Sam Veitch, Zach’s sister and another Plaza 28 owner. “It’s really bringing a lot of people in.”
The plaza’s businesses rely on one another, Sam said. When coffee customers ask about breakfast, Robert and Adele send them to Phoenicia Pizza 28, where Zach and Sam work. The goal, she said, is to build a little village on Route 28.
Good Boy Catskills pairs its drinks with provisions from local businesses, including chocolate bars from Fruition Chocolate, pastries and cakes from Overlook Bakery and Balthazar, and savory items from Westwind Orchard and Magpies. The shop also stocks tea from In Pursuit of Tea and Dona Chai, juice from Monday Cold Press Juice, dairy from Hudson Valley Fresh Dairy, and granola from Upstate Granola.
The coffee shop is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day except Tuesday.
Mia Quick is an editorial assistant and reporter at The Overlook. Send correspondence to mia@theoverlooknews.com.
