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Red Barn Coffee Roasters remains one of Westborough’s favorite spots.WESTBOROUGH – Over 30 years ago, Red Barn was merely a businessman, a roaster, and an idea.Today, Mark Verrochi has transformed a 25-by-25foot backyard barn into a thriving business.“No one believed it would work,” he said.At first, Verrochi wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do with his life.So he looked to the military, serving as a U.S.Navy Special Operations Officer in the early 1990s.It wasn’t easy.Frequent deployments defined the first few years of his marriage, and although a beach house in Hawaii that allowed him to kayak to work every morning had its perks, it wasn’t long before he had children and felt as if he was missing important milestones.On his last tour of duty, Verrochi was stationed in Washington and noticed that coffee was “blowing up.” He started running an espresso cart business right outside the World Trade Center in Boston, but it was an idea New Englanders weren’t ready for yet, he said.Afterward, he had opportunities to run coffee bars in a variety of locations: “We were set up for success and then we pretty much provided the footprint to some other companies on how to do it.” When Verrochi purchased his first espresso machine, he was introduced to Bill Trull – the man who would become his very first employee and a longtime roastmaster for the company.Alongside his wife, Lisa, and Trull, Verrochi transformed an old backyard barn into a coffee roasting headquarters.The original barn still stands beside his Hopkinton home today – though it’s just over the town line in Upton.The shaky ladder that once led to his loft office remains, but nowadays, the barn has largely become his wife’s paint studio.In February 1997, Red Barn Coffee Roasters was officially incorporated.The crew opened its first cafe in Southborough on April Fools’ Day that year.That day lives in infamy in New England, but not just because of Red Barn’s opening.The 1997 April Fools’ Day Blizzard dropped two feet of snow across New England.The cafe opened at the former location of a diner.Verrochi and his family completely gutted the place, and, using parts from a home renovation, transformed the small building.He recalls only having enough money to paint one side of the space red.“Lisa, don’t look too closely – it’s a barn,” Verrochi remembers telling his wife.At 4:30 a.m.on Red Barn’s first day open, Trull came driving through with his whole family on their way to Disneyland.He was their very first customer.A year later, another Red Barn opened up across Route 9 through a partnership.At one point, the business had eight locations, including at Faneuil Hall in Boston.The success of the cafes was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.Many locations closed; the Red Barn at the Longwood Galleria in Boston sold to its longtime manager and is now known as Heidi’s House of Coffee.But the Westborough cafe on South Street has stood strong for 27 years, alongside the location at Staples Headquarters.The business has never rested on its laurels.It’s still innovating, and Verrochi is excited about what’s to come.“We essentially reinvented ourselves with COVID,” he said, explaining how the business has laid the foundation to focus on wholesale – currently operating out of its 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Upton.Internet sales took off while people were working from home.Verrochi said he’s incredibly grateful for his employees.All this time, Red Barn has had no official sales team.“It’s all been word of mouth,” he said.