Mocha Motts will continue to serve Islanders at its original Oak Bluffs location, but the iconic Island business will be downsizing and closing up its Vineyard Haven shop where it served coffee for more than two decades.
Co-owner Tim Dobel, who has been in the Vineyard restaurant industry for nearly fifty years, is retiring and handing the reins over completely to business partner Meredith Aldrich.
“The way forward is for us to sell that building in Vineyard Haven and then I will retain the spot in Oak Bluffs and buy Tim out of the business,” Aldrich said in an interview with the Times. “All the staff is on board and wants to do this with me, so that’s really awesome. The relationships I have with the staff and clients over the years — and all our customers — is really important.”
Aldrich said they’ll most likely close in Vineyard Haven after the holidays this year, although there’s no concrete timeline yet. Next steps depend on how soon someone purchases the building.
The business partners have put the Main Street building on the market with Ocean Park Realty and are asking for $2.9 million.
“My plan is to keep it open through the first of the year,” Aldrich said. She added that she’s excited for a more seasonal structure by reorienting the business to the Oak Bluffs location.
As for Dobel, he said he’s looking forward to retirement. “I’ve worked every day in the summer for the last 47 years, and I want my summers back,” he told the Times. “We’re downsizing to one store, Meredith will be owner and CEO, and I’ll be riding off into the sunset.”
Original Mocha Motts’ owner Mott Hinkley first opened the Circuit Ave. location in 1994. Seven years later, Dobel and Aldrich bought the business together. Then in 2004, the two opened the second location in Vineyard Haven. The pair has won the “Best of the Vineyard” award for “Best Coffee Shop” twenty years in a row since.
Prior to Mocha Motts, the 15 Main Street location served as a lunch spot called Bongo. Before that, Island residents may remember Get a Life Cafe, a coffee shop. The Main Street building currently also hosts the Puff and Pass smoke shop; there are also two apartments upstairs and a basement.
Looking toward his retirement, Dobel plans on traveling and continuing his writing: He is the author of “Bogey Is Par: Revised Rules of Golf”.
“Whatever time I have left, I want to put into writing and traveling. It’s time for me to do that,” he said.
Dobel moved to the Island in 1979 for one summer to help run a restaurant but ended up never leaving. Before Mocha Motts, he ran the Tisbury Cafe down the street for 18 years. He said that his lucky break was ending a lease on the location right before the Inn burned down in 2001.
Aldrich, who has been seen by many Islanders baking in the back kitchen at both Motts locations in the early morning hours while taking a break here and there to chat with customers, will continue her hands-on ownership with the same staff. Mocha Motts is known for their long-term employees, some of whom have worked there for over twenty years.
Aldrich has also highlighted artists over the years on their walls in an effort to uplift local talent. She said the things that everyone loves and remembers about Motts will be pivoting, not changing completely — and the staff, Dobel, and Aldrich all are extremely close. Aldrich added they’re like family to each other.
“It’s going to be the same Motts that everyone’s known and loved all this time, it just won’t be in Vineyard Haven,” Aldrich said.
It’s such a strange way to put this article. The amount of business at the Vineyard Haven store far out paces that in the Oak Bluffs store. No one is going to go to Oak Bluffs in the winter for a cup of coffee. Mocha Motts in VH has become an institution. The OB store is just not that great a place. That’s why there’s been a coffee shop at the location in VH for 40 years. It’s such a shame. All those folks at the VH will lose their jobs in the winter.
I completely agree…trading in a year round store with an excellent location for what clearly can only be a seasonal operation from a marginal location in OB just doesn’t seem to make sense. There’s got to be more in this story, something is missing.
All things come to an end.
Does ‘more seasonal structure’ mean closed in winter?
What a great RUN! You guys have a great business. 47 years of dedicated service is impressive. Best of luck TIM. We still have Meredith, SCOTT MOTT, and the whole crew!
Mocha Mott’s has always been one of my ‘happy places’. We are SO glad that OB will have a year round coffee shop and not just any coffee shop – the fabulous Mocha Mott’s!
Congrats on a well deserved retirement Tim – We will miss the VH spot no doubt, but super excited to support the OB location more often – bring back the breakfast burrito! lol
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