Andrew’s Honey Opens First Retail Store

The mobile honey merchant you may have seen rolling around the Upper West Side finally has a permanent storefront.

Andrew Coté, who owns and operates Andrew’s Honey (and the Andrew’s Honey truck that’s become an Upper West Side fixture), soft-opened the business’s first brick and mortar location on Saturday at 315 Columbus Avenue (at West 75th Street). The space formerly housed a Benefit salon location until this summer.

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“I’ve never had interest in a storefront,” Coté, who took over the family business about 20 years ago, told ILTUWS. “I loved the fact that I could live a gypsy lifestyle in the back of the truck, pick up stakes and be in another spot the next day. But I know this is the right time and place.”

Coté is still workshopping a name for the shop, which he’s only had access to for about a week, but likes “Nobu and Andrew’s Honey and Pollen Emporium.” Nobu is Coté’s nine-year-old son who became more involved in the family business during the pandemic.

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Coté sources raw honey from apiaries he has throughout all five boroughs in areas like rooftops, community gardens, and balconies. He even keeps bees on the north lawn of the United Nations.

“Our rooftop honey is what we’re known for,” Coté said, adding that it can help combat allergies. “People believe it disrupts the pollen you’re breathing in and helps build up immunity.”

On Saturday, which Coté calls a “really soft opening,” the store displayed its rooftop honey in addition to other honey varieties from NYC like meadowfoam and buckwheat. The store is also selling propolis honey, royal jelly, honeycomb, pollen and more. Coté is also planning to eventually offer apitherapy, which uses controlled bee stings to treat ailments like MS, arthritis, and tennis elbow.

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Originally from Norwalk, Connecticut, Coté was a Fulbright professor teaching linguistics before taking over his family’s beekeeping business. Besides the honey he sells primarily at local markets, Coté’s bees are used up and down the east coast for pollination. After living on the UWS for 20 years and firmly rooting his family in the neighborhood, Coté began toying with the idea of the storefront.

“People always ask me, ‘do you have a shop?’” Coté said. “I walked past the space and liked it. The landlord was reasonable and fair. We seemed to share a lot of values.”

Coté says a symbolic grand opening is being planned for the first week of spring.

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