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photo by Meghan Winkler
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photo by Meghan Winkler
Against one wall of Kavé Coffee Bar is a stage for its weekly open mic night, and another wall serves as a gallery space for its local artist of the month.
“We very much like to be a space for people to foster creativity and to be able to express themselves,” says Ryan Struckel, the general manager of the Barberton shop that opened in 2014 across from Lake Anna.
Artists of many mediums, including painting, photography, digital art, 3D printed art, poetry and sheet music, have showcased work, and this month find paintings by Sylvia Sykes. Customers attend gallery nights, where they can meet artists, and many have bought pieces.
The art harkens back to Kavé’s roots sharing the storefront with Nine Muses art gallery. It closed in 2018, and Kavé took over the rest of the space. Now, patrons work on art pieces in the dining room while sipping coffee, tea or lemonade.
A popular choice is the cold brew flight ($12). It features 10-ounce cups of four options of Crimson Cup coffee — a standard cold brew, a nitro cold brew and two chilled drip tower blends — and the slow-brewed lineup makes for a lot of caffeine, so bring a friend to split it.
The cold brew is made by steeping Armando blend beans in cold water for 24 hours. “It’s a very smooth, nutty taste,” Struckel says.
The nitro cold brew, the Wayfarer blend with notes of strawberry, is prepared similarly for 24 hours except it is infused and slowly steeped with nitrogen. “That gives it like a creamy, cold, almost bubbly carbonated texture,” he says.
The drip tower blends, which are made as water slowly drips over 12 hours, are sometimes the Biftu Gudina, which has apple Earl Grey notes and the Antigua Finca el Cadejo, which has chocolatey notes.
If the cold brew flight is too much caffeine, consider the cherry amaretto latte or the strawberry white mocha. Both are set to be offered this spring when the string-lit rooftop patio is open through the warmer months.
“There are a lot of businesses that are walk in, get something, walk out,” Struckel says. “We try to be that pillar in the community of a place to be, a place to hang out and just be yourself.” AS
584 W. Tuscarawas Ave., Barberton | kavecoffeebar.com
