As a third coffee shop moves into the Arts District, the Repository takes a moment to look at what makes them unique.

CARPE DIEM COFFEE SHOP

Ten years after opening Carpe Diem Coffee Shop in a downtown Canton storefront at 215 Market Ave. N, Cathy Wyatt is going gangbusters, with a second location inside Belden Village mall.



1. So what’s new and exciting?



“I just got back from a coffee convention in New York City. I took two barristas with me. If you’re a coffee nerd, it was nirvana. Lots of seminars and classes. I focused on tech things — we’re about to get our own phone app.”



2. How have people’s perceptions of coffee changed over the past 10 years?



“As much as people like to gripe about Starbucks, they’ve definitely created a big awareness of the specialty-coffee business. People are more knowledgeable and they care more about things like fair trade and organic. It’s almost like wine now — people are buying estate coffees. But I’ll tell you, if you don’t have good customer service, it doesn’t matter how good your product is.”



3. Do you sell a lot of the sweet coffee drinks?



“I go easy on the sugar. I think our espresso is really good and I don’t like to cover it up. At Belden, we sell Nutella frappuccinos like crazy. It’s all kids, and you can’t have enough sugar.”



4. Tell me about your clientele here?



“It’s more the downtown business people — attorneys, Chamber people, social workers, but we also get kids from Timken. We’re really counting on Stark State. They’re supposed to bring 1,100 students downtown, starting in the fall or next January. We close at 2 p.m. through the week, but I’d be happy to expand our hours.”



5. Thoughts on downtown Canton?



“It’s a coffee explosion down here! (She and her husband) Patrick are biting the bullet. We’re going to move into the Onesto.”







CULTURED COFFEE CO.

Heath Hamlin is the newcomer in downtown Canton’s coffee-shop landscape, having opened Cultured Coffee Co. at 309 Cleveland Ave. NW in January.



Hamlin was a student at Kent State University and a bartender before launching his venture in the heart of the arts district.

1. What made you decide to open another coffee shop in downtown Canton?



“I thought the Canton Arts District was a perfect place to invest in. I didn’t want to open in North Canton or Belden Village or Massillon, it was always about being down here. So I quit my job and I was in Buzzbin talking to Mike (Nasvadi) about opening a coffee shop and Sam Ferrucio (Cultured Coffee’s landlord) was sitting right next to me and he said, ‘Hey, I own a building.’ ”



2. You were a bartender. Where did you learn how to make lattes and cappuccinos?



“I teamed up with a guy in Pittsburgh. He showed me a lot of secrets of the trade. It’s all very precise. These (specialty-coffee drinks) don’t happen by themselves.”



3. What is it like in here on First Friday?



“Crazy. (We) had five people working back here. We almost sold out of coffee. I had one 5-pound bag left, that was it. I’ve had really good support from the community.”



4. Do you have a lot of regular customers?



“I probably have 40 regulars who come in here every morning and that’s a modest number. People that work around here keep you busy in the mornings. Weeknights are probably actually the busiest. A lot of people come in to study and they stay.”



5. What kind of live music do you feature?



“A lot of singer-songwriters, usually on the weekends. I’ll book somebody or people will just come in and say, ‘Hey man, can I make some noise?’ I usually will give them some coffee. I had a group of hippies come in. They took their shoes off and they made some awesome music.”







MUGGSWIGZ COFFEE & TEA CO.

Alexander Haas was a trailblazer when, in April 2003, he opened Muggswigz Coffee & Tea Co. at 137 Walnut Ave. NE in downtown Canton.



There was not yet an arts rebirth, and the coffee shop was one of few businesses that wasn’t running the other way.



Over the last 11 years, Muggswigz has won multiple awards, including recently being named by USA Today as one of the “10 best coffeehouses across the U.S.A,” and taking third place in 2013 in the America’s Best Coffeehouse competition held in New York City.



Here, Haas, who has a second Muggswigz location in Jackson Township, talks about believing in downtown Canton.



1. Did it seem risky opening up in downtown Canton when you did, at a location off the beaten path?



“Yes. Downtown wasn’t nearly as built up as it is now. We really had to focus on being a destination as opposed to trying to rely on traffic. We’ve really focused on getting regulars and giving them a great experience so they keep coming back.”



2. How important is having a well-trained staff?



“The skill of the barristas has a huge impact on the quality of the drink, and the staff is undergoing constant training. The ideal cappucino is extremely hard to do, which is why there are regional and national barrista competitions.”



3. Have your customers become more sophisticated about coffee in the years since you opened?



“Definitely. It’s been fun to see the area and the clientele become more educated about coffee and tea, and that’s helped us immensely. They enjoy getting involved with us and hearing about the competition we go to or the new tea we just got in. They’re starting to get excited about coffee-nerdy type things, like how guests can get their coffee brewed for them while they wait through an Aeropress with custom metal filters.”



4. How did USA Today find out about Muggswigz?



“We have some notoriety in the industry from the competitions we’ve placed in, and we got a good review for our roasting from Kenneth David’s Coffee Review. He’s the industry’s most-respected roasted-coffee reviewer.”



5. Thoughts on downtown Canton?



“It’s been great to see what’s happened. Part of the reason I opened up in downtown Canton was to push it along.”