Perking up: How the arrival of a coffee shop can get a small town buzzing

Avonmore has long chased an economic renaissance that never quite arrived.

If anything, the dream of a bustling business community slipped further out of reach when the town’s rolling mill closed in 2019, taking more than 100 jobs with it.

But the borough has a coffee shop among its small handful of businesses, and that seems to count for a lot.

Harley Heatherington and Shelby Marchitelli moved Empress Coffee Co. into an Indiana Avenue storefront in October.

It may have been a risk to start a coffee shop in Avonmore, but it’s a move that has been replicated in other small, economically challenged towns across Southwestern Pennsylvania with broad success.

“It’s just a market that doesn’t die out,” Heatherington said. “Where do you go that everybody doesn’t need a cup of coffee?”

Economic development experts agree. They say the shops tend to be an easy way to fill storefronts in diminished business districts.

In the experience of Brian Lawrence, executive director of the Westmoreland County Redevelopment Authority, residents ask for coffee shops more than any other type of business — even grocery stores — during community engagement sessions. And for many of these places, “the reality of a coffee shop is a whole lot closer than grocery stores,” he said.

That’s because of the low start-up costs, minimal labor needs and cafes’ ability to fit into just about any space, explained Tim Bates, a senior business analyst with the Saint Vincent College Small Business Development Center. Leasing space, buying second-hand equipment and hooking up with a local roaster, rather than roasting beans in-house, can further tamp down expenses.

What really makes coffee shops special, though, are their “knock-on effects.”

A 2024 study by Columbia University researchers found areas where a new Starbucks opened saw up to an 18% increase in the number of business start-ups over the next seven years — an effect they believe applies to similar cafes.

1833 Coffee and Tea in Freeport may be the perfect case study of how coffee shops can punch above their weight.

Karen Heilman, 1833 co-owner, recalled how “people were telling us we weren’t going to make it” after opening in 2021. The doubters’ predictions didn’t come to pass. Heilman and her business partner, Virginia Lindsay, have even gone on to open Grant Avenue Coffee Co. in Vandergrift’s relatively developed main corridor.

Since 1833 Coffee and Tea arrived, so have a bakery, a yoga studio and a card shop. Other economic factors are surely at play, but the owners of each said the coffee shop helps drive traffic to their businesses, either by bringing customers to town or just being a place where word of mouth can spread.

“That’s the only reason the area is thriving, to be honest, because (Heilman and Lindsay) had the guts to start something,” said Kristen Formaini, who opened the yoga studio, Numa, in 2023.

Peter Wesolosky could have pointed to the yoga studio from his seat in the Freeport coffee shop on a pleasant morning last month. He’s a Freeport boomeranger, in the process of moving his family from Denver to the small Alle-Kiski Valley town where he grew up.

Since returning, he’s noticed “a different kind of buzz,” he said, and has seen a wide variety of people come through the coffee shop, from college kids to the “old Freeport crew.”

That’s another one of the coffee shop’s superpowers — providing a place to gather, run into friends or just get some work done outside of the house.

It’s the textbook “third space,” a buzzy term in sociological circles referring to a meeting ground besides work or home.

Coffee shops, in particular, excel at the “social mixing and community cohesion that I think third spaces are really effective at providing,” said Michael Glass, director of the University of Pittsburgh’s urban studies program.

They’re also a great way to demonstrate a town’s “vibrancy and dynamism” to young people who may be thinking about leaving, he added, in a way that most other third spaces, like libraries, churches and fire halls, often can’t.

Coffee, grounded

For all the rosy talk, coffee shops can run into trying times, like any other business.

Harvest Moon Coffee and Chocolates, with locations in Tarentum and Harrison, appeared to be going strong until launching a GoFundMe last month — and later closing it after raising less than $4,000 — in part to pay off debt. The target was $100,000.

“I recognize that this was an unconventional call for assistance,” owner Desiree Singleton wrote in an update on GoFundMe. “The donations Harvest Moon received helped us to overcome a significant short-term financial hurdle and we are so grateful for it.”

Both Harvest Moon locations remain open, brewing up a friendly, welcoming atmosphere that’s become the hallmark of the local coffee house.

Glass City Cafe in Jeannette did fail, closing its doors in January after nearly two years of business.

Cardinal Coffee Roasters entered town around the same time. After a “pretty busy” first few months, traffic has plateaued a bit, said co-owner Charles Zollinger.

And there’s always the looming threat of Starbucks, with its 17,000-plus stores across the U.S., including 500 or so in Pennsylvania — mostly in urban areas. But the chain has been targeting small towns for a few years now, where then-Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan told investors in 2023 there’s “real headroom” to expand.

Since then, Starbucks has moved into or signaled plans to open in New Kensington, Allegheny Township, Buffalo Township, East Huntingdon and Salem Township.

But that doesn’t necessarily spell doom for local coffee shops in those areas. Greensburg, sandwiched between multiple Starbucks locations, supports about five local cafes, including Dv8 Espresso Bar and Gallery, located within a four-block area of the Westmoreland County Courthouse on North Main Street.

Still, staying relevant during Dv8’s 23-year run has taken some creativity.

Former owner Kim Elliott-Rentler said the shop needed a “shot in the arm” when Zack Dreskler took over in 2022, and he’s provided that by bringing in new pastry vendors, sponsoring more local events and just trying to “refresh things a little,” he explained.

In good news for budding coffee shops, while the novelty of a new cafe may wane for locals over time, it never quite wears off, in Dreskler’s experience.

“I still get people saying coming in, ‘hey, when did you guys open?’ ” he said.

At the Steep Mountain Tea Co. shop at the Greensburg Train Station, Judy Weakland, of Hempfield, who owns the quaint tea and cafe shop with her son, Marcus Weakland, says they have created an atmosphere where customers can come in, get something to eat and drink and sit down and talk.

“My son says it is always about the people. We love the people,” said Weakland, who opened the shop in July 2022.

One of those customers who loves the atmosphere there is Lori Albertson of Richland Township, who was at Steep Mountain Tea on Wednesday while her daughter was at a Seton Hill University music camp in Greensburg.

“This is more than a coffee shop. It’s the whole experience … the ambience. The whole community comes in here. This is a slice of paradise,” Albertson said.

Weakland said they have created “a cozy place” for place for people to gather.

“I think we are all searching for that sense of community and peace.”