Craft Italian coffee in Fairlawn
The walls of Cafe Arnone are lined with black-and-white family photos. You would think the cafe is named after the owner, but his last name isn’t Arnone.
“Arnone isn’t just one person — it’s a family,” says Michael Maghes, owner of the modern Italian coffee bar in Fairlawn.
The photos are displayed from the oldest to youngest generation: Ma and Pa Arnone, his Sicilian great-grandparents who immigrated to Akron in 1913, his grandmother and her sisters, his mom and her sister, Maghes and his family at his wedding in Florence, Italy, and Maghes’ kids eating gelato.
To connect with his heritage, Maghes studied abroad in Italy and visited relatives in Sicily. He loved hanging out at neighborhood cafes, where Italians returned throughout the day for a quick cappuccino or to linger over cannoli.
“Italians live to enjoy life. I was very enamored and drawn to it,” Maghes says.
He wanted to bring back that “la dolce vita” ethos, the Italian concept of “the sweet life.” He started in 2011 by importing and reselling Italian coffee, then launching an Arnone food truck and finally opening the cafe last fall. But Maghes didn’t take a traditional all-Italian approach. Instead he melded two cultures into an atmosphere and menu that honors his heritage and who he is now: a fourth-generation Italian-American.
“There’s not an Italian cafe on every corner. We had to modernize and Americanize it to fit where we are,” he says.
His menu spans classic Italian cappuccinos to artisanal seasonal lattes, including a s’mores mocha ($4.75-$5.75). And all offerings are made with custom blended imported Italian coffee.
Perhaps his most authentic drink is the affogato ($4.75), from the Italian word for drowned. It features gelato he learned to make at a crash course in Chicago and tweaks to craft seasonal offerings like sugar cookie and panaforte (Italian fruitcake). You can ask for any flavor, but he prefers pouring a cup of espresso over espresso gelato.
“The experience is a cold scoop of gelato with a warm shot of espresso that marries perfectly,” Maghes says.
His menu features his take on an Italian street food called a piadina, wraps he serves on locally made flatbreads. The house specialty piadina is the OG ($7.75) with creamy ricotta, salty prosciutto, crunchy arugula and a drizzle of a proprietary lemon extra-virgin olive oil imported from Italy. He also recommends the Big Sal and Sweet Siena breakfast piadinas ($7.50) named after his children, Salvatore and Siena.
It isn’t a sidewalk cafe in an Italian piazza, but Maghes still gives Cafe Arnone the warmth of a community gathering place by sharing his skills in gelato making classes and hosting summertime Italian car shows. That hospitality brings to life the Italian saying that translates to “Family is everything” written under a color painting of Ma and Pa Arnone near the pastry case. You’ll see his family — cousins, parents — helping out behind the coffee bar and chatting with regulars. Their last names aren’t Arnone either, but they all share this little slice of “la dolce vita” on a busy Fairlawn road.
“We want to keep entering more people into our family,” Maghes says, “but they’re not necessarily blood.”
Drive-through available, 2840 W. Market St., Fairlawn, cafearnone.com