Get to Know Fernando GuerardIn Fairhope, there is no one quite like Fernando Guerard.
Half Southerner, half Spaniard, this globe-trotting gentleman with a dozen years experience owning and operating a branch of a multinational marketing corporation in Spain recently found himself in a new hometown with a new business.
After visiting a cousin in Fairhope, Guerard relocated to the Eastern Shore in November 2009.
A year later, almost on a whim, he opened a coffee shop in town dubbed Amore Que Latte.
“The people in Fairhope are so nice and we were just invited everywhere,” said Guerard, who came to the area with his Russian-born wife Irina. “But after moving here, I couldn’t find work in my field.”
Get to Know Fernando Guerard
Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
Hometown: Fairhope
Family: Wife, Irina; son, Russell
Occupation: Coffee shop owner
Activities: Tennis, crafting furniture
At first, Guerard jokingly considered opening a coffee shop after spotting the Nuova Simonelli fully automatic espresso and cappuccino maker at his cousin’s house in Fairhope.
“This is like the Rolls Royce of coffee makers,” he said with his Spanish accent, while motioning to the shining machine in his café.
“The minute I saw it I told my cousin Roger, ‘We should start a coffee shop.’ Believe it or not, this is the most expensive part of a coffee shop. The idea really started as a joke, but then I started looking for a location and I found this location across the street from Thomas Hospital where our baby Russell was born April 6.”
He selected the location in the hopes of providing a convenient, comfortable place for hospital staff and families of the hospitalized to enjoy quality gourmet coffees, teas and foods.
“People have said it is overwhelming to stay in the hospital all day and just go down to the cafeteria,” he said.
The café, nestled behind Pizza Hut on Greeno Road, is as unusual as its owner.
The coffees and teas are organic, the food fresh and the atmosphere is comfortable with an international flavor.
The coffee shop is a labor of love. Guerard designed and handcrafted most of the special touches from the stenciled walls to the richly upholstered counter front.
With Spanish and jazz tunes setting the mood, Guerard cordially greets guests alongside his wife and their 7-month-old baby Russell, whom Guerard describes as “the president of the company.”
A room out front is filled with tables, while the space in back is decked with big sofas and a long meeting table that invites patrons to come free of charge and enjoy a film on a projector or gather for a meeting with free Wi-Fi.
“We have met so many wonderful people in Fairhope -- and we hope people who come to our coffee shop feel at home, like family,” he said.
Although Guerard is new to Fairhope, the Madrid, Spain native is at home in the South.
His family was one of the founding families of Charleston, S.C., and his father, Russell Bogert Guerard, was the first member of his family to leave Charleston.
“He traveled the world, went to Spain and met my mother,” said Fernando Guerard. “My mother was from a well-known, old-fashioned, classy Spanish family.”
Guerard grew up in Madrid, but attended boarding school in Ireland at age 10. He later attended an exclusive American school in Madrid with three to five students per class.
He went to a private Spanish School before attending the University of South Carolina at Columbia, earning a degree in fine arts.
He returned to Spain in 1996, and for a dozen years, he owned Spain’s branch of Outform, an Israel-based multinational corporation with clients like Coca Cola and Samsung. The company is a specialist supplier of products for the retail marketing industry.
“I was very successful, but when my father passed 1½ years ago, I decided I wanted to return to the states,” he said. He said he wants people who come to his café to feel as comfortable as he’s been made to feel in Fairhope.
“I want this for people who come here -- to relax, bring their kids and feel comfortable,” he said.