Final Cars and Coffee Event of Season on Sunday

Submitted by Rob Ackerman and Kyle Chan

The final Cars and Coffee event of the year takes place from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 15 at the Crafts Food Halls – Revolution Hall. Photos by Rob Ackerman

Bedford residents Robert Ackerman and Kyle Chan, two young auto enthusiasts, have organized a successful Cars and Coffee event that is ending for the season on Sunday, Oct 15.

Everyone is welcome to join them at Craft Food Halls – Revolution Hall, 3 Maguire Road, Lexington, from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sunday for this season-closing event.

Ackerman and Chan, both long-time Bedford residents and graduates of Bedford High School, have cultivated an interest in crafting a family-friendly community event that they say “breaks the mold of typical car gatherings by allowing any and all to join, no matter what they have or do not have to show.”

Ackerman, an active member of the Bedford community, has enjoyed getting to know more people outside of the usual circles he belongs to from teaching fourth grade at the Lane School, instructing martial arts for Callahan’s Karate Studio, and working at BSA. He can be found around town with his camera capturing events and helping inspire children. He finds great joy in meeting new people from the car community. Rob brings his 2020 Subaru WRX to the event.

Chan, who works at Moison Ace Hardware on Great Road, has become a familiar face around town. Many have come to know Chan through the store, where he has helped people with home repair and projects. He is also in the process of attaining his commercial pilot’s license and hopes one day to work in the airline industry.

Chan began his journey in the car community with his ex-British Army Land Rover Defender, with the help of his dad, which was imported in 2016. If you see his unique Land Rover slowly going about in Bedford, be sure to wave.

In the summer of 2022, Rob and Kyle attended a car show together on the South Shore and quickly realized the positive impact these events have on the community and wanted to bring that to our local community.

Later in the spring of 2023, they set out to create this event and see what would happen. They brainstormed local venues in an attempt to find a suitable parking lot and venue that would be open to crafting a community partnership for this event. They visited a few places in our local area, finally deciding on working with Craft Food Halls – Revolution Hall, a new local staple that has been a great meeting place for a multitude of events.

On May 21, Ackerman and Chan hosted their first Cars and Coffee event, They showed up hoping for a few locals to come by and enjoy their Sunday morning together. They walked away that day “absolutely astonished by the power of word of mouth” and sharing this event through a Facebook group they created.

During this first event, their thoughts were confirmed that it was possible to create this type of event in the area with the full support of all involved. Community members brought their exotics, classics, imports, and everything in between. That was their exact hope – to craft events that were not specific to a certain label.

With momentum building, Ackerman and Chan were pleased to hear the positive feedback, and armed with the full support from Craft Food Halls, they set out to grow the event each time.

They went on to host a Cars and Coffee on June 18, July 30, Aug. 20, and Sept. 17 – each with great success and various new community members joining them. They have averaged about 50 cars per event with many regulars and new faces each time.

A few of the showstopper cars that have made appearances include: