Factory Espresso opens in Medina in Newell building

Richard Sarrero, who helped start Shirt Factory Café, leads new venture in downtown

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Staff of Factory Espresso at Hart, which opened in the Newell Building at 113 West Center St., include from left: owner/general manager Richard Sarrero and baristas Riley Tompkins, Katie Hilobuk and Tatianna Mason.

MEDINA – The building formerly known as Newell Shirt Factory has a new tenant brewing up business under its roof.

Richard Sarrero, who owns the building with local attorney Andrew Meier, has opened Factory Espresso at Hart, serving espresso, breakfast and lunch.

Factory Espresso opened for business on June 1 and is slowly growing. The business added a breakfast and lunch menu this week and plans to release a full menu next week.

The current menu includes some old favorites from the Shirt Factory Café, such as the Bob Hope and Rich Little sandwiches.

The espresso menu features the basic flavors, along with specialty drinks, such as Ube latte (a sweet and nutty root vegetable, also known as a purple yam), blackberry lavender white mocha and muddled mint and pistachio.

Factory Espresso also offers online ordering as well as curb service.

“If you call in your order, you can pull up in front, put on your four-way flashers and we will run it out to you,” Sarrero said.

A lot has evolved at the Shirt Factory in the last few years, but Sarrreo is quick to mention more is in the works.

Richard Sarrero, owner/general manager of Factory Espresso at Hart, watches barista Katie Hilobuk prepare a drink.

The Newell building has undergone a number of major changes since Meier purchased it in 2005. His first step was to open the Shirt Factory Café in 2007.

He would later remodel the entire building, creating offices on the second floor for the law firm of Webster, Schubel and Meier and two hotel rooms, and hotel rooms on the third floor.

The hotel rooms are known as Hart House Hotel, after the hotel which existed there from 1876. The Hart House Hotel served guests until 1918, when Robert H. Newell established his high-end shirt business there. The business would exist in some form until 2004.

 Sarrero entered the picture in 2013.

 “I needed something fresh in my life, and was looking for a career change,” Sarrero said.

 He purchased the Shirt Factory from Meier and had started a wine bar in back, which they closed and then opened the Boiler Room in space that actually was the boiler room for the shirt factory.

In 2015, 810 Meadworks opened where Factory Espresso is now and leased space for the Beegarten in back as a performance venue. Sarrero at that time added a juice and smoothie bar to the Shirt Factory Cafe.

 In 2018, Medina natives Scott Robinson and his wife Alix Gilman decided to return home from Washington, D.C. and were looking for a place to open a craft cocktail lounge in town.

“It all happened at the right time,” Gilman said. “Rich needed a change and Scott and I were looking for a spot to open a cocktail bar.”

At that time, a barber and a knitting store once occupied two spaces in the building.

Covid raised havoc with the Shirt Factory (Café had been dropped) and business became strictly takeout. 810 Meadworks moved from the downtown site to Leonard Oakes Estate Winery on Ridge Road in Medina. The knitting store moved out in 2020, while the barber had left some time before. Sarrero and Baillie McPherson had a beauty salon in the Shirt Factory, before moving to a larger space on Main Street. They were the last business to occupy the space which is now Factory Espresso.

The Shirt Factory is still in business as a cocktail lounge, operated by Gilman’s brother, Christopher Kozody. It is open from 3 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Sunday, serving craft cocktails and a variety of elevated bar food and small plates. They are also open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays, serving brunch.

Gilman called it a “Boozy Brunch,” featuring mimosas and Bloody Mary’s.

She is happy to see Sarrero has opened Factory Espresso at Hart.

“It’s exciting to see Rich back doing what he loves,” Gilman said. “It completes the building and serves as an amenity to the hotel.”