So what happens when you reach 30 or so and put your guitar-thrashing, garage punk/acoustic freak folk youth behind you?
Well, different indie psychedelic jam guitarists make different choices, but, for Aaron Carlson, the path soon became clear–coffee roasting.
On Oct. 1, Carlson opens Little Amps Coffee Roasters, a roastery and café in a newly restored building at the corner of Green and Muench streets in Harrisburg. There, he will roast beans on site and brew coffee the old-fashioned way–with a hand pump espresso machine, French presses and slow pours into individual filter cups.
“I will continue the process that started when the coffee was planted,” Carlson said. “I’m very process- and detail- oriented. When you line up everything right–the time, the temperature, all the details–you really have a great cup of coffee.”
Carlson’s shop marks the end of a long journey that began in Dauphin Borough, where he grew up, and wound its way through Washington, D.C., and California. Along the way, he fronted two well-received rock bands before settling into the more adult business of coffee.
“I developed a love of coffee when I was a musician,” he said. “We’d roll into a town and end up at a coffee shop before a show. We would always ask where the best places to go were.”
He later learned the trade at a San Francisco roastery called Ritual Coffee Roasters, which let him watch and listen in exchange for work. Two years ago, he returned to Harrisburg, settling in Bellevue Park, and decided to give this coffee roasting thing a try.
His Little Amps Coffee (the name is a nod to his rock guitarist past) quickly gained an audience from local coffee buffs, and, for the past year, he’s operated a roastery out of borrowed space at Hi Voltage Productions, located in a converted power substation on Maclay Street.
Carlson wasn’t even considering a shop when approached by WCI Partners, which was seeking an operator for a café they planned to open after fully restoring a rundown corner store they had acquired in the heart of Olde Uptown.
After meeting Carlson and hearing his thoughts on community, coffee and creating a great neighborhood space, Little Amps emerged as the perfect fit, said WCI President David Butcher.
“We think this is going to be a great match for this community,” said Butcher. “I know that the residents are very excited that Little Amps is opening here.”
Carlson had hoped, one day, to open his own place–it just came a little earlier than he had thought. And, even though his life already was hectic (he and wife Kara just had a baby boy), he jumped at the opportunity.
In the final days before his shop’s debut, he was making sure all the last details were in place. The space is beautiful, with a poured concrete bar, lots of exposed brick and Carlson’s coffee roaster (in which he will actually roast coffee) as a centerpiece.
Not that he will completely leave behind his rock’n roll past. He plans to have a select group of albums for sale (vinyl only!) and expose patrons to his tastes in music. He might even bring in some of his old band buddies to play a live gig.
“The atmosphere will be wonderful, but the most important thing is the coffee,” he said. “I try to roast perfectly, so that I respect all the stages that have already taken place in the process. I want to get the right roast for the right bean so that it tastes like its origins.”
Little Amps Coffee Roasters, 1836 Green St., Harrisburg. Open Monday to Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Contact: littleampscoffee@gmail.com, www.littleampscoffee.com.
