Altin Frroku brought his family to Ansonia from Albania nine years ago.
After working at pizza shops and construction jobs, last week Frroku opened a coffee shop, “Planet Eris,” on Main Street in Ansonia.
Frroku recently talked with the Valley Indy about working for yourself, what makes a good cup of Albanian coffee and the center of his universe.
Valley Indy: The name of your new coffee shop is “Planet Eris.” Where does that come from?
Altin Frroku: I have two reasons.
My first reason is my son’s name, my little one (is) 2 and a half years old. His name is Eris, too. I love him so much. He’s my planet. That’s why I put this name, Planet Eris.
The second reason … the United States found a new planet and they called it Eris.
Valley Indy: Do you have other children?
Frroku: I have two more kids. My son is 16 and my daughter is 10. Eris is the baby. Very active.
Valley Indy: What will you serve here?
Frroku: We will serve everything: Coffee. Cappuccino. Albanian coffee. Greek coffee. Espresso. Italian coffee. Regular coffee.
That’s all for now. But maybe in the future, in a couple months, I’m going to apply for a liquor license. Wine and beer, just to serve at the bar.
That will be later on. For now, just coffee.
Valley Indy: I see you have a pool table here. What do you envision this spot becoming? A place to hang out?
Frroku: Yeah, a hang out. We have Wi-Fi too, so if people come in and want the Internet, they can go online. And hang out. Have a good time.
All the time it will be quiet and nice. I want to be like everybody here on the street: Nice.
Valley Indy: What made you open up on Main Street?
Frroku: Because it’s Main Street. You have people walking by. It’s a busy road.
We want to make it nice. Make it busy, so we need to make the people happy. We’re going to make Ansonia nice like every town. Every Main Street is busy. Every Main Street has business all over.
Valley Indy: You opened last week. How is business so far?
Frroku: It’s not bad. Every business starts in the beginning, and it’s a little hard, you know. But that’s all I want to do — to make the people happy. And everything else, we’ll see in the future.
Valley Indy: How will you compete with Safari Lounge down the road? Their specialty is Moroccan coffee.
Frroku: But we have our stuff. We have Albanian coffee. We have Greek coffee. Frappe. American coffee. Hot chocolate and tea.
Valley Indy: What is Albanian coffee?
Frroku: It’s like black coffee. Black black coffee. And it’s served short. It’s like espresso. They call them Turkish coffee too. Because years ago we learned from them.
Valley Indy: This is a tough time to start a business. Where you scared to start up in a bad economy?
Frroku: I worked for Captain’s Pizza for six years. And I worked construction with my Albanian people over here, all over. And now I tried to open something myself.
It’s a little scary. But if you’re scared, you’re never going to make a business. If you’re scared, you’re never going to work for yourself. You have to try. Even if I lose, at least I tried something. If it doesn’t go, it doesn’t go. What are you going to do?
Planet Eris Coffee Shop is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to midnight. The shop is located at 82 – 84 Main Street, Ansonia.
