By Cathy Miller

Greene’s Beans Café has been a go-to coffee fixture on High Street in Hackettstown since 1995. Ben Scardo, Hackettstown resident, barista, and musician, will have worked there for 12 years this coming February.

“When I first started, I was just working weeknights and weekends because that’s all that was available. This was going to be like my ‘I’m going to stay here until I find a real job’ type thing,” Ben said. “Slowly but surely over time, as people left and I kept getting offered more hours until one day both morning people left and the owner asked if I wanted to work five days a week. I said ‘yes, totally.’”

Right now, unsurprisingly, is the busiest time of year at Greene’s Beans, which Ben gregariously takes in stride.

PETS

Living minutes away from his job, Ben explained, “It’s an easy drive to work, although it takes an hour to get there because I have to let each one of my pets know I’m coming back home. I find all three cats, I find both dogs, and I reassure them I’ll be back, I’m not mad at them. It should only take me five minutes to get to the Café, but I still wake up at 5 a.m. to get there at 6, just because I have to talk to my pets.” Sometimes if he doesn’t offer proper goodbyes, his one cat will get a bit spiteful. “She’s getting old and senile, but that’s my cat, of course she’s going to be spiteful. All the animals I’ve ever raised have become punks, just like me. They listen to punk music with me, I think they get the attitude from that. My old cat Midnight, may she rest in peace, was a huge Black Sabbath fan. I could be anywhere in the house playing Black Sabbath and that cat would come and say ‘this is my time.’ They also like the Ramones. Yeah, they’re good animals. I’m blessed to have them.”

“I rescued Jasper [a lab/pit mix], abandoned on Route 46, covered with ticks, down to skin and bones, he was abused, the poor guy. I’ve had him nine years. Lily [a pit], I’ve had for 2-1/2 years. She just turned five in October. They’re good dogs.”

Then he shared photos of his pets, as he said, “I wouldn’t be a good pet owner if I didn’t have pictures of my pets.” In the photo, lounging on the bed, were Jasper and Lily and a cat named Shelly “who thinks she’s a dog. The other cats don’t get along with the dogs, but she adores them.”

He’s learned a lot from pet ownership. “Part of the reason I got a dog is because I don’t want to have kids. I thought if I get a dog, it won’t talk back. I didn’t realize pets talk back! When I play these band shows, I’m out ‘til two or three in the morning.” Upon his tardy return, there’s Lily, watching [judging?] and waiting, he recalled, much like his mother used to do. “Lily stands at the top of the stairs. She doesn’t bark, she grumbles at me, like she’s saying ‘do you know what time it is? Do you know how late it is?’ One night I came in and was actually arguing with the dog, ‘what bills do you pay?’ as she was admonishing me for coming home really late. Lily is so big, she head-butted me in the chest once and my heart skipped a beat!”

BEANS

Back to the Beans: Opening their doors and sharing their taste for coffee, Greene’s Beans has been brewing in Hackettstown for a quarter century. Ben said, “We have a location in Sparta, too, but this is the main location. The center of the business is right here. This is where all the roasting happens.” He added, “I don’t do any roasting yet. The owner tells me he’s going to teach me how to roast, we just have to work out a day to make it happen. We both have really odd schedules. I would love to work on a roast.”

Are you responsible for taste-testing or making recommendations for what is served here? “With the customers, yes. The big decisions are made by the owners, Brian and Dave, the Greene brothers. Under them is Giselle and Kelsey. I float around in between all of them doing whatever they ask me to.” Ben explained, “I’m basically the owner’s right-hand-man. Kelsey is a manager, but she works at both stores. I’m kind of like the guy here for the owner. If he needs things to get done here, he’ll contact me.”

With such a vast cache of coffee, do you need to know specifically what each tastes like? “Oh definitely, yeah. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful staff who have better palates than I do. If a customer says they’re looking for a certain type of coffee, I can usually pick up on it. But every once in a blue moon they’ll ask me a question and I’ll say ‘let me ask somebody here who has a better palate.’ For the most part I’m familiar. A little while ago, I actually quit drinking coffee and switched to either espresso or tea, depending on the day. When it came to the new coffees, I couldn’t tell you what they tasted like because I hadn’t tried them. I’m trying to be better about that now, even if it’s a new coffee, like the Baby Yoda blend for Christmas. I’ve had a pour of that just so I could say I know what it tastes like. I feel bad when people ask ‘how’s this one?’ and I haven’t had it in a year. It was good last time I checked!” Most coffees remain the same. Certain ones, like Kenya, never change, he said, but “Sometimes they’ll switch up the blends, which would [alter] the taste, so I have to stay on top of that.”

For the most part, their customers are very nice and really friendly. “They’re creatures of habit, and that’s good and bad. It’s good to see so many familiar faces who are committed to our dreams. At the same time, if I’m going out on tour, there are certain customers who actually won’t come here when I’m gone because I’m not making the coffee. That doesn’t make any sense to me, because the other staff makes the coffee just as well as I do, if not better. If they drive by and don’t see my car, they’ll keep going. I have to say ‘you guys can still come in and get coffee. They’ll talk to you, too.’ Recently, I found a website that makes life-size cardboard cutouts, and I was joking about making one of me to leave by the door. Customers are so used to seeing me five days a week, when something changes all hell breaks loose.”

Creatures of habit, but please mind your manners! Ben admitted, “I am an enforcer of manners. Certain people come in on their cell phones and I can tell it’s very important, so I won’t bother them, I just get their order. Others come in and they’re just gossiping on their phones, I’ll stand in the corner and wait. I have some customers, I’ll say, ‘good morning, how are you?’ and they’ll give me their latte order. I’ll actually say, ‘please and thank you help.’ Sometimes they get mad, more often they apologize. I pick and choose my battles with that one, but I think manners go a long way.”

“We have a lot of regulars. Everyone knows my name. They all know everything about us. It’s a cool thing. My goal is to make [Greene’s Beans] feel like home to people. I don’t want them to feel like they’re a burden here. I want them to come in and feel welcome, which is also why I don’t allow politics on the TV. The owner tells us we can watch politics, sports or the weather channel.” Taking it a step further, Ben proclaimed, “I have no time for politics, so it’s the weather channel!”

MUSIC

“I really like working here. It’s one of the only jobs that’ll let me tour,” Ben noted gratefully. “They don’t care if I go on tour, and they don’t care for how long I go, all they really care about is their coverage. Is there someone to open the store, because I open it Monday through Friday. As long as I have that under control and have someone scheduled to be here, they don’t mind if I go on tour. That’s part of the reason I’m still here. Not many jobs will let you leave to go on tour for four weeks and not make a big stink about it. Brian and Dave are both very supportive of my music. For a while I was taking care of my ill mother, and they were also very understanding of that, too.”

In the course of this interview, Ben frequently mentioned touring, which he does with both Will Wood and The Tapeworms, purveyors of pop music or swing punk, depending on who you ask, and the duo DejaGravy, which he classifies as “doom metal.” He plays upright bass with both acts. How long are Will’s tours? “We’ve had small tours. We’ll go up to Massachusetts, then circle around to Philadelphia, then come back to Jersey. But then there are other ones where we’ll go all the way up to Cincinnati and work our way back. This Friday I’m playing in Vermont and Saturday in New Jersey. This summer, Will wants to conquer the east coast, going all the way down to Florida and working our way back up. We’re gonna die from sweating. Will makes us wear suits on stage, it’s so hot.”

His other band tours from time to time. “DejaGravy does ‘weekend warrior’ tours, as we call them, because my drummer works six days a week and it’s hard for him to take time off. We’ll do a Wednesday through Sunday type deal and call it a tour.”

Will Wood and The Tapeworms is an avant-garde group, with Will Wood – and his fans — known for wearing colorful makeup during his shows. “Sometimes it feels like we’ve got a cult brewing, I’m not going to lie. We have a huge online community of high schoolers and college kids, which on one hand is great because they love the music and come to the shows. On the other hand, there are some very interesting posts about us online. Will has a lot of experience with crazy fans. Overall, we’ve got really supportive and dedicated fans and I appreciate it more than I could ever tell them. They bring us food and candy on tour, they give us things.”

“I’ve been in 13 different bands. I’ve been all around the block. Actually, with DejaGravy, this is my sixth band with drummer Ricky. We’ve been playing together since we were 15. We were playing in a band called BDFM in 2012” [which this author thinks was quite good], with a singer/ukulele-ist. When they disbanded, Ricky and Ben became a duo. “It was great. He’s my best friend. He comes over, we have band practice, then we watch ‘Wayne’s World’ and eat Chinese food. That’s the way it should be!”

In describing the doom duo, Ben noted, “DejaGravy is just upright bass and drums. We’re very horror movie-themed, very inspired by John Carpenter. We perform in the dark. We bring a projector to our shows and play black and white films over the top of us. There are no lyrics, it’s all instrumental and we try to give off those spooky vibes. That’s why we’re getting booked for Halloween shows!”

Do you play anything besides bass? “I play guitar. I dabble with synthesizer, although I’d really like to buy a new one [he has an old micro Korg]. I taught myself how to play drums but have never played out as a drummer. During Hurricane Sandy, when we didn’t have power for two weeks, I learned drums from a Herb Alpert album, who by the way has a fantastic Christmas album I discovered last year, and I love it.”

Ben continued, “Bass is my main instrument. I started out as a guitarist but I didn’t have the ego. All my guitarist friends were trying to be Eddie Van Halen or Joe Satriani, shredding. I was playing rhythm guitar and hanging out with the drummer. My dad said I needed a bass. So I bought a bass, I taught myself a bunch of Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath songs. It was cool, I could still hang out with the drummer [onstage] like I did before. There’s a lot of egos in the bass world, but not as many as in the guitar world.” He then went on to characterize bass players, stating, “they’re never on time for anything and we’re always the weirdos of the group, hands down, which is why most of us are single!”

Those readers looking for a mind-bendingly good time should make a pilgrimage to Roxy and Duke’s Roadhouse in Dunellen on Saturday, Dec. 28, for Will Wood and The Tapeworms’ final show at the legendary venue, which sadly, is closing down (or going in a new direction, again depending on who you ask). Ben said, “I know our show is close to sold out. It’s going to be a good time, it’s always a good time at Roxy and Duke’s.” The band considers the unique concert hall their home base, so expect a huge finale of a show at R&D’s final Saturday in action.

AND JUST A BIT MORE

Ben is very happy working at Greene’s Beans and playing music. Thanks to a mutual acquaintance, he is now a minister and performs weddings. He says, “It’s not really a job, more like a fun side gig. It’s something I do for friends to help them out. They don’t want a big crazy wedding. I customize the ceremony for them and add my own flavor. Friends might want to elope. OK, let’s go –  all we need is a garage and two witnesses! I’ve performed 11 weddings as a minister.”

Interestingly, Ben “ran for sheriff a few times, I got 20 votes. So, one day, imagine if I did run and actually win, I might be able to get something done. When I was going to run for governor, I had a slogan ‘I’m not Chris Christie.’ Another one is, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing, but neither do the current politicians.’ People would appreciate that, they’d say ‘at least he’s honest’.” 

Ben is a talented sloganeer, having bestowed upon himself two particularly descriptive, perhaps coffee-centric, monikers: “I am the flavor” and “The Lord of the Beans.” He’s also known for his tip jar labels, which happen to have their own Instagram! One of his favorites, and perhaps most puzzling, is a photo of Gary Busey with Happy Birthday greetings on it. Baffled customers wonder why Mr. Busey. Ben simply explains, “I like him!”

Drop in to Greene’s Beans to see Ben and savor a coffee – be sure to tell him Inside Warren sent you!

Greene’s Beans Coffee Café and Roasters
313 High Street, Hackettstown NJ 07840
(908) 979-0022
greenesbeans.com

Roxy and Duke’s Roadhouse
745 Bound Brook Road, Dunellen, NJ 08812
(732) 529-4464
roxyanddukes.com