Julie Merritt opens the Koffee Kat Espresso Bar for business on a chilly December morning. She flicks on the lights, casting a warm glow on the brightly colored walls and mosaic tile floors. Next, she brews two big pots of coffee, preps the sink for dishes and flushes the espresso machine.
Then, it’s time to pick the music. She still uses Pandora, and likes to switch between a John Mayer station and another one that plays artists like Odesza and Flume.
“So it’s either going to be EDM (electronic dance music) or it’s going to be really calming Norah Jones-type style,” she says, laughing. “It depends on the crowd and the energy that I feel like it’s going to need today.”
The song she picks fills the cafe with a calm, chill vibe. A few minutes later, Matt Dunbar is one of the first customers to trickle in.
“Guten Morgen!” he says in greeting. “Hey-yah!” Merritt replies.
Dunbar is a new-ish regular at the Koffee Kat. He’s also a photographer, hiker and one of the resident artists.
“People from all walks of life come into the Kat,” he says. “Some people are a little different than others and this is a very welcoming place for them and they feel very comfortable here. They’re really good individuals and they feel safe here.”
‘Come as you are’
And that’s kind of the essence of the Koffee Kat. It’s got this “come as you are” reputation that’s been built up over the last 24 years by its previous owner, Patty Waldron.
“It’s like being a bartender, but it keeps you in touch with how people are actually feeling out there,” Waldron said of owning the cafe when she ran for re-election to the Clinton County Legislature in 2017. “They talk a lot about addiction because this is a safe place to go when they’re … recovering.”
That reputation for acceptance was something Merritt and her husband, Durgan Zappala, — who is also Waldron’s son — wanted to preserve when they took over the business in October.
“There’s a lot of people who would come here, who do come here that might not feel comfortable other places,” Zappala says. “We’re very much like the working man’s coffee shop; come as you are, come in your pajamas and your slippers and we’re gonna pour you black coffee.”
Playing ‘a delicate game’
Even though he grew up with the business, Zappala says taking the reings wasn’t always part of the plan. But a bunch of things fell into place: Waldron wanted to retire, and he and Merritt had the means and lifestyle, even with two young kids.
Merritt says it’s been a pretty seamless process. She and Zappala went into it with all sorts of ideas for growth and change.
“But we had to play a little bit of a delicate game, making sure that we preserve the 24-year history of the Koffee Kat while expanding on that and bringing it more — I don’t want to say up-to-date — but having it grow (in)to what we wanted the Koffee Kat to kind of be, and the balance of the two.”
That balance means things like keeping the menu items people know and love, and doing new things. You can pay with a credit card now; it used to be cash-only. They brought in some new artists to sell their work, but kept the iconic yellow “buy 10, get one free drink” cards. And they’ve added CBD (cannabidiol) products.
Merritt and Zappala describe the Koffee Kat as a sort of town hall or clubhouse where people make connections. Over the years, it’s played host to everything from political debates and fundraisers to client meetings and first dates.
The new owners wanted to add a different kind of nightlife to that mix.
“Downtown has a lot of restaurants and a lot of bars,” Merritt says, “but they don’t really have a lot of other places for people to go to hang out and relax without being exposed to alcohol.”
Welcome to The Kat — After Dark
Armed with a guitar and harmonica, Will Scheifley plays for an intimate crowd in the Koffee Kat’s cafe. But on the back porch, the garage door is open, letting in the cool air and a view of glowing streetlights and mismatched buildings.
The room is lined with neon-colored lights, giving it a warm, zen glow. It’s The Kat — After Dark. The cannabis lounge.
“People can go to bars and restaurants and socialize over alcohol,” Ricky Stewart says. “They have for years, but, you know, cannabis hasn’t been that way.”
It’s Stewart’s second time hanging out in the cannabis lounge, which opens every day after 5 p.m. unless there’s a heavily family-friendly event.
The Koffee Kat doesn’t sell marijuana products (those that contain tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC), but it’s probably the first place in the city that lets people bring their own — as long as they’re 21-plus.
At another table, Michael Lacy smokes, the end of his blunt occasionally glowing orange and turning to ash as we talk. Like Dunbar, he’s a regular and resident artist. He also owns a local tattoo shop.
“We come here, there’s light music playing in the background, there’s people that are having intelligent conversations,” Lacy says. “You have your crowd in the daytime. They come here, they drink coffee, you even have kids that come in here and they do crafts on certain days.
“You have people that come in from (Champlain Valley Educational Services) and they learn how to work the cash register and stuff,” he continues. “But then, at night, this is a different crowd and it’s so crazy to see all of these different things under this one roof.”
Coming full circle
When I ask Merritt about her relationship with the Koffee Kat, she talks about how her family grew along with it.
She and Zappala would come here as customers when they first got together eight years ago. Then, pregnant with their first child, she’d help make milkshakes and smoothies. The memory makes her smile.
“And now it’s really grown into … we now have two kids, and we own the Koffee Kat and so our children are almost experiencing that same lifestyle that Durgan grew up with, full circle,” Merritt says.
“It makes me so emotional actually thinking about it because I look at my son and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s like the same thing that Patty experienced,’ and I think it’s really good. I think it’s beautiful and it makes me really happy.”
