How COVID pandemic — and father's exterminating business — inspired Ocean Brew Coffee

Brett Kimmins

Fri, Feb 18, 2022, 7:01 PM7 min read

WALL - For Ellen Bodnovich, owner of Ocean Brew Coffee, there is something special about coming into her shop everyday and being a part of something great.

“I walk in that front door at 5 a.m. every morning,” Bodnovich said. “Before I open up the store, I look around and I don’t just see the espresso machines and all of this fancy equipment. I see my family and all of the people that make this business possible. Here, everyone is family and that doesn’t just include my relatives, it includes everyone from our employees to our customers. It is a perfect example of dreams coming true.”

From an early age, Bodnovich knew she had aspirations to be an entrepreneur, but she didn’t know in what field. Her father owned an exterminating company when she was little and she wanted to replicate that experience.

“I saw him going out everyday, working hard and coming home tired and dirty, but still making time for our family,” Bodnovich said. “He made it a point to have dinner every night together and that mentality really hit home and stuck with me.”

Ocean Brew Coffee is a Wall-based business that sells different types of coffee and other morning food. Owner Ellen Bodnovich with products the business offers. Wall, NJWednesday, February 16, 2022

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Bodnovich's grandfather, Howard Fischoff, started the business and her father, Gary, took over the business after Howard passed away in 1988.

“I paid a lot of attention to my father,” Bodnovich said. “He took over all of Deal, as well as all the ocean homes on Ocean Avenue running up and along the Jersey shore. I knew, just by watching him grow the business into something special the way he did, that I wanted to follow in his footsteps and do something equally fulfilling.”

Sometimes, Bodnovich would go along with her father and got a hands-on experience of not only how her hard her father worked, but also of how to go above and beyond to please the customer.

“I constantly saw the way he interacted with customers and I loved that about him,” Bodnovich said. "It was a pleasure for me to observe the rapport that he built and I knew that I would be able to utilize that same skill set for myself later on in life with my own business. His work ethic really inspired me.”

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Ocean Brew Coffee is a Wall-based business that sells different types of coffee and other morning food. Owner Ellen Bodnovich mixes up a caramel iced latte with whipped cream. Wall, NJWednesday, February 16, 2022

'I just loved customer service'

When Bodnovich was in high school, she had her first job working at a Dunkin' Donuts in Ocean Township.

“I just loved customer service and being with people,” Bodnovich said. “I got a real pleasure out of talking to the customers, so I would start up a little conversation with every customer that came through the door. The next time they came in, I would remember them. You don’t see a lot of that in most Dunkin' Donuts these days, but I tried to give that experience to every customer that I came into contact with. Since I was young, I have been all about the experience, no matter what job I had.”

As Bodnovich grew older, she would meet her husband, David, get married at age 22 and move to Chicago in 2011. She had a daughter, Elizabeth, and then two more boys, Jacob and Asher. Her husband is a pilot for United Airlines. Through the course of living in Chicago for nine years, Bodnovich would settle down, buy a house, raise a family and become a stay-at-home mom.

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“I realized I wanted to contribute more to my household and follow my dreams,” Bodnovich said. “I always loved coffee and I kept thinking about it more and more from my Dunkin' Donuts days. I just wanted to do something my dad did with the customer service part as the anchor for my inspiration. One day, I told my husband I wanted to open a coffee shop, just not in Chicago.”

David was well situated in his job and suggested that it might be a few more years before that dream could be fully realized, so they put it on the back burner.

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Launched by the pandemic

“It wasn’t long before the pandemic hit and everything started to shut down,” Bodnovich said. “After some careful thinking, we decided to accept a severance package for David’s job and we agreed to move back to New Jersey in 2020. My father had also passed away in May of 2019 and my mother was alone a lot. It just seemed like the right decision to make at the time and we went through with it.”

Bodnovich and her husband sold their house and moved back to New Jersey in 2020. “It allowed David to not have to get a job right away and he could be there by my side when I got the business off the ground,” Bodnovich said.

“During that time, both David and I had to first look for a location for the business," she said. "David’s parents knew a man by the name of Mike Ayars, who owns Turnstile Coffee Roasters in Belmar. We set up a meeting to talk to him to see what the coffee industry was all about. I told him all about my dad and my dreams of owning my own business.

“He loved my idea and my excitement to get everything started,” Bodnovich said. “We hired him as a consultant and he taught us all about specialty coffee, including how the bean is harvested, roasted, grinded and turned into a drink. He gave us all the information we needed to educate ourselves and be informed for our customers.”

Ayars also helped her find a location. Bodnovich found her spot in February 2021 in a freestanding building on New Bedford Road just off Route 35 in Wall, although it has a Spring Lake mailing address. After some minor construction on the location, she opened Ocean Brew Coffee in May 2021.

“A lot of the places we looked at were located in strip malls, but I didn’t want to go that route,” Bodnovich said. “I wanted to have a real homey feel because that was the concept for the business and I really wanted to bring that idea to life. I drove by the location that we have now in Spring Lake and I instantly fell in love with it. Before long, we met with the Realtor and sealed the deal.

“Since opening in May of last year, we have really done great and we have such an abundance of amazing local people that come in and frequent our business,” Bodnovich said. “Every single day, they come in and support us. We can’t say how thankful we are to be here. This town is amazing.”

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Ocean Brew Coffee is a Wall-based business that sells different types of coffee and other morning food. Owner Ellen Bodnovich with her mother Debra Fischoff who helps out at the business. Wall, NJWednesday, February 16, 2022

Bodnovich carries a couple different flavors of coffee, as well as espresso drinks like lattes and cappuccinos. The store has hot and cold teas, and kids drinks without coffee such as hot chocolate. She also sells yogurt parfaits, coconut granola bowls and other healthy items as well.

“We try to keep it “grab and go” because we have somewhat limited space on the inside,” Bodnovich said. "In the spring and summer, we have an outdoor setting where people can come and sit down outside and enjoy their coffee.”

But getting the business going is not the end for her.

“I still have big hopes and dreams,” Bodnovich said. “I want to continue watching this grow and just see where it takes us. In a couple of years, we want to have a second location that is a tad closer to the beach. We would like to see the sand and that is next on our list.”

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