Tennessee’s Snowbird Mountain Coffee Now Nesting In a Vintage Trolley Car

Tennessee roaster Snowbird Mountain Coffee has opened its first coffee bar inside a converted trolley. All images courtesy of Snowbird Mountain Coffee.

Coffee has literally gone off the rails in Newport, Tennessee, as roasting company Snowbird Mountain Coffee has opened its first standalone retail location inside a repurposed vintage trolly car.

With drive-through and walk-up service, Snowbird offers a menu split between “basic” traditional coffee drinks and an array of inventive concoctions that please people seeking either a specialty coffee-centric experience or sweet-tooth satisfaction in league with what’s available at the area’s mega-chains.

“We try to keep recipes simple and balanced and to let the coffee speak for itself without drowning it in tons of sugar,” Snowbird Mountain Coffee Co-Owner Missy Ackerman told Daily Coffee News. “Our drinks are different from what most people are used to getting around here.”

After a long life in coastal Maine, the beautifully remodeled trolly car was in rough shape when it first arrived in Tennessee, according to Snowbird co-owner and Missy’s husband Corey Ackerman.

“The years and coastal weather had taken its toll on the oak exterior, the roof had several leaks and the floor was rotten,” Corey Ackerman told DCN. “I’ve always been a DIY kind of person and woodwork is a hobby of mine so I really didn’t mind taking on the project. We like cool and funky vehicles and always wanted to put a mobile shop into something really different.”

According to the Ackermans, the Snowbird trolly has experienced a three to four times larger volume of business than anticipated since a soft opening in January. The roasting company’s online retail effort was put on hold to direct all energy to supplying and running the trolly, which is now slated for a Wednesday, April 1, grand opening.

Said Corey Ackerman, “[The busy opening stretch] has been absolutely incredible, but with that came a host of new problems we had to solve before we would be ready for full-time hours.”

Coffees are currently roasted by Corey Ackerman in a roastery in Hartford, Tennessee, on a custom-built, 4-kilo-capacity fluid-bed roaster named Megatron, built by an engineer friend who builds small fluid-bed roasters for hobbyists.

“I reached out to him about scaling up one of his designs to 4 kilograms for small-batch commercial roasting,” said Ackerman. “It took about three months or so to source parts and have the metal fabrication done. ‘Megatron’ was born. We made about 80 pounds of cardboard-flavored coffee getting the kinks worked out and developing some workable profiles, but the experience of building a roaster from the ground up, troubleshooting and tuning has given me a level of understanding that I wouldn’t have by simply purchasing a new one.”

Harnessing Megatron’s agility, Corey Ackerman considers it his job to meet the local demand for a certain level of roastiness in Snowbird coffees, while also maintaining each bean’s origin character and quality.

“One thing we learned very quickly about being in the coffee roasting business was that what we personally like to roast and drink is not necessarily what is going to sell,” said Ackerman. “Most of our customers are looking for something Full City or darker but shy away from coffees that are bitter or overly acidic. We look for coffees that are full bodied with muted acidity and a natural sweetness that can be enhanced by drawing out the ramp phase.”

Custom counters, cabinets, doors, windows and more were installed inside the 145-square-foot trolley space along with decorative highlights such as the trolly’s original interior brass work and window filigree. New copper countertops and vintage tin ceiling tiles were added.

“I wanted to give it a feminine and antique look, but also preserve as much original character as possible,” Missy Ackerman said. “It’s even got an authentic trolley bell that we ring when someone leaves a tip. We definitely wanted it to stand out and be different but mostly we wanted to create something that the people of Newport could be proud of.”

Snowbird Mountain Coffee is open now at 457 W Broadway in Newport, Tennessee.