Brewing beans and boujee vibes at Dartmouth’s newest coffee shop
When Stephanie Turgeon saw that 743 Dartmouth Street was for sale an idea popped into her head that she couldn’t dismiss: she would purchase what used to be Two Sisters Catering and turn it into a coffee shop.
“I live right around the corner and saw the vision,” Turgeon said. “Sometimes when I see things I just go after it.”
A month and a half later, Turgeon opened Boujee Bean.
The name Boujee Bean, she said, comes in part from telling her kids that they’re boujee when they want to go to Starbucks and from making the shop about herself while also “bringing the joy of coffee to others.”
“One of my favorite things is people coming in, sitting at the bar and having coffee,” Turgeon said. “A lot of older people have a story to tell and then they just sit and talk and have a laugh.”
Turgeon herself is not a major coffee drinker but has taken barista classes and considers coffee-making a “learnable trade.”
“I want to grow into it, hear what people want and take away from conversations,” she said. “If there’s a suggestion I really do take to it. I want this to be a towny, local place.”
So far, menu items include drinks named after Dartmouth locations, including Rock O Dundee, a mocha latte, and Round Hill, a caramel latte, acai bowls and an assortment of pastries. Turgeon also rents Boujee Bean out for special events, which have so far included a get-together teachers from Cushman Elementary School held before going on winter break.
Turgeon said she is also getting regulars.
“I just love seeing the faces that come back, and the fact that I remember their names, and they’re just sweet,” she said.
Addison Stanley, a first-time customer from New Bedford, visited Boujee Bean after her dad told her to check it out because it’s a “very you location” and has “boujee in the name.”
It turns out, Stanley said, that her dad was right, noting that Boujee Bean has the “vibe of a coffee shop that I want.”
As a college student, Stanley said she looks for coffee shops where she’s able to sit down and read a book, which she said isn’t always possible.
“I feel like a lot of coffee shops, like Dunkin’, you can’t really just sit there and enjoy the aesthetic of the actual coffee shop,” she said.
Aesthetics, Turgeon said, is what she’s going for.
This goal involved putting in “a lot of TLC” that included putting in “me touches,” such as purse hooks on the bar, re-doing the bathroom and introducing the colors green and orange to make the space feel “so cozy,” she said.
“Even my coffee, I want it to look a certain way, with layers and warmness,” she added.
There is a sort of calmness to Boujee Bean that Turgeon also hopes to achieve.
“I don’t want people to be stressed,” she said. “I want people to be relaxed and happy and leave with a smile.”
Stanley said she enjoyed Boujee Bean’s atmosphere over the “quick pace” of many other coffee shops where “you get your coffee, get in, get out,” later adding that she was already planning on returning to the shop with a friend.
Turgeon said, “I want to have a conversation where it’s not just, let me put a sticker on a cup and get you out the door.”