Berlin Coffee House closing as owner decides to retire

After seven years of running what was, for many in Berlin, the coffee shop where “everybody knows your name,” 68-year-old Peggy Hagy is retiring at the end of this year.

When it opened in 2009, the Berlin Coffee House on 17 Jefferson Street filled a major void in a town that had yet to be properly caffeinated.

Hagy, who operated the shop with her son, Jason, aimed to remedy that. A Baltimore native, Hagy and her family moved to the area in the early 1980’s. At the time, she was working as a graphic arts director.

Her road to becoming a respected barista and businesswoman was nontraditional, to say the least.

“When Gannett was buying up all the papers in town, I was working for The Independent and I thought, ‘this is getting nuts,’” she said. “So I quit. And I ended up working for Kate Patton when she had the Globe in 2000. I’d never done food service and it was a ton of fun – I totally enjoyed myself.”

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