Acushnet Barista Become First-Time Business Owner With Rescue Café

On Tuesday, November 9, Acushnet residents will have a new place to grab their morning cup of coffee, and the best part is that a portion of their money will go straight back to the community.

Acushnet resident Joni Rhoads is excited to open her very first business called Rescue Café, a coffee truck drive-thru where she will donate a portion of each sale to SouthCoast animal shelters.

Rhoads has called Acushnet home for the past two years, and coffee has been a part of her life for the past 12 years.

Every day, she makes the drive to the Cape to work at a local coffee shop. She has been a baker her entire life and has offered her services to other owners for years. When she and her boyfriend caught wind of a utility trailer for sale, it was the confidence boost she needed to take the leap into owning a business.

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“Stonebridge Farms renovated the trailer into a full-blown kitchen, and my boyfriend encouraged me to buy it," Rhoads said. "He’s my biggest cheerleader,” said Rhoads.

On Sunday, she quit her job, and on November 9, she will be a first-time business owner.

“I was a general manager for so many years, and said to myself, ‘You know what? I can do this,’” Rhoads said. “This is my first time owning anything. I’ve been working my whole life towards this.”

With Rescue Café, Rhoads is excited to introduce a new kind of coffee shop. She wanted to give back to the community, and as the foster owner of two cats, her heart was set on animal shelters.

“A lot of places will ask customers to round up their change to donate to a cause. I’m not asking that. All I need is for people to get their coffee from me,” she said.

A portion of every single sale will be donated to a local animal shelter.

“I don’t want to do just one. We want to spread it out as much as we can,” she explained. The more shelters, the better.

Rescue Café will offer USA Homemade Donuts from New Bedford, and espresso and coffee from Rhode Island-based RUI & Sons.

Rhoads hopes to include online ordering in the future to make it even easier.

Keep an eye out for the trailer in the Gifts to Give parking lot at 1 Titleist Drive in Acushnet, and say hello to the newest business owner when she opens the trailer for the very first time on November 9.