Help Save Gentle Brew

I’m creating this Go Fund Me to help Gentle Brew reopen its doors. I’m a fellow small business owner and in my 18 years of entrepreneurship, I’ve made my share of mistakes and know how they can snowball. Long Beach NEEDS Gentle Brew as not only a coffee shop and roastery but as the true community hub it has been since it opened its doors. Mel & Bryan are working tirelessly to get out of a hole they know they created, but have had a year + of serious challenges and just need some help. Every time I’ve asked them to donate their space for a Surfrider meeting or coffee for various events, they never once hesitated to help out. I’m sure many of you have similar stories. So I’m trying to get them some help in their time of need right now. Any small amount you can give will help lighten their load and get them reopen.  Thank you!

~ Amanda Moore

If you care to read more, below is a letter directly from Mel & Bryan:

Hi everyone! 

We're reaching out because we are currently closed and we want more than anything to reopen. As you may have heard, we were forced to shut down because of some mistakes made by us when we should have known better. We've had a difficult year, with a lot of financial stress from a legal battle, and we lost sight of some of the financial guidelines we had set for ourselves in an effort to do everything we could do keep our boardwalk location. Unfortunately, these mistakes were expensive and certainly stupid, and have put us in this truly unfortunate position we're in now.

If you've ever spent time with us, our staff, or even just enjoyed a cup of our coffee, please help out with whatever you can spare to help us get back up and running. We promise to keep putting out freshly roasted coffee, amazing baked goods, and continue to be that place for first dates, catching up with old friends, holding interviews, having meetings, doing your work or reading a book. 

If we are able to reopen it would mean that:  we could continue to roast co ffee and serve drinks and baked goods to our customers at our two locations in Long Beach, our employees would get to keep their jobs, our wholesale clients (other local businesses, cafes and bakeries) would be able to continue to use our roasted coffee and cold brew to sell to their own customers, and we could continue to sell at the Northport and Huntington Farmers markets.

We're not asking for the community to pay for all of our mistakes, but we're hoping that you could help us get back on our feet so we can reopen and continue doing what we love  for our amazing community. 

Long Beach, and greater Long Island, has been the most amazing community and family we could ever imagine. The outpouring of support that we've received from all of you has been so incredible and we truly appreciate it more than you know. 

Thank you so much, 
Bryan & Mel

-- 
Mel Chiusano, General Manager
Gentle Brew Coffee Roasters
151 E. Park Avenue | Long Beach, NY 11561