Perk-Up Coffee Xpress grows to 4 Long Island locations, after starting with a single horse trailer

For Irene Neglia, great coffee is more than high-quality beans, careful roasting and consistent service. It’s about connection.

“I just love how a great cup of coffee can bring a conversation together,” said Neglia, the founder and owner of Perk-Up Coffee Xpress and a native Long Islander who launched her growing coffee company in 2023 after more than a decade working as a real estate paralegal.

But Neglia’s entrepreneurial plan wasn’t always to sell coffee. “I had this horse trailer that I intended to convert into a truck to sell flowers out of — on the North Shore after I retired,” she recalled.

“When I lost my job, I had a hard time,” she said, recalling going on “thousands of interviews” where nothing was happening. “Finding a job in your late 40s isn’t easy … and I was kind of a 9-to-5er.”

But a fortuitous meeting with Bay Shore’s “Java Josh” Heydemann, the owner of New York Gourmet Coffee, led Neglia to think about selling coffee as a business. She said she started bringing her horse trailer to farmers markets and was going to market her business as a sort of “mobile coffee bar.”

Neglia recalled how Heydemann took a liking to the trailer idea, and the two became good friends. The friendship ultimately led Josh to want to sell Neglia his coffee business, and he began teaching her the trade — everything from where to roast the beans to selling coffee online.

When Heydemann died a few months later, Neglia said she then made the decision to rebrand the business and make it much more than it was.

Perk-Up Coffee Express has four mobile locations, along with the company’s trailer. Perk-Up can be found at the Seaford LIRR station, the Roslyn Farmer’s Market, Rockville Centre and in its newest spot, a walk-up coffee window in Bellmore.

“Josh was mainly selling coffee beans online … whereas I made the business model mobile, going to where customers are and, of course, focusing on per-cup coffee sales as the main driver of the business,” Neglia explained, adding that “much of what I purchased from Josh was his online customer base, but everything else is different.”

She said that her business is focused on building relationships with partners, from rehabilitation centers across Long Island to Nassau County courts.

“From last year to this year, the mobile aspect of my business, including doing on-site events, has just blown up,” she said. “We’re now doing many private and corporate events, as well as partnerships with Long Island businesses, grand openings, etc.”

Neglia noted that one of Perk-Up’s newest additions is a “coffee cart,” capable of being used inside venues, that Neglia is just starting to market.

Although Neglia likes the mobile aspect of her business, she notes that using the trailer is seasonal.

“I’m still mulling options as to whether to open an actual physical coffee shop location,” she said.

Neglia said her initial investment in the business was $35,000 to repurpose and build out her horse trailer to sell coffee. She said one drawback of the trailer is that it has to be hitched and unhitched regularly at event locations.

“It’s not drivable and that’s definitely a limiting factor,” she said. “It’s a competitive industry and there’s definitely a lot of work that goes into it.”

In spite of her time as a paralegal spent basically working regular shifts, being entrepreneurial was always in the family, Neglia said.

“My dad is an entrepreneur involved with MMA fighting and my brother owns restaurants in Merrick,” she said, noting that her dad “never worked 9 to 5” and was something of a workaholic.

“Now with my own coffee business, I’m working hard in another way. You start someone’s day and really get to know people, kind of like therapy,” she said. “You know who’s going through a divorce and where people are going on vacation. You’re not stuck at a desk all the time. I really get to know my customers.”

_{Top: Irene Neglia (Alan Krawitz photo)}