Forgive us, your humble Sprudge editors, for having one of our tradmeark changes of heart. Yesterday we loudly declared it was the final day of Build-Outs season for 2025. But then, well, a very cool new cafe came in just under the wire, and we couldn’t resist the opportunity to share one last fabulous build-out before calling it good for the year. And so—in what we are reasonably now sure is really and truly the *last Build-Out of the 2025 season—let’s take a look at Slow Hurry in Youngstown, Ohio.
*Sprudge reserves the right to run one, maybe two more of these stories, if in fact they do materialize.
The 2025 Build-Outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Ceado, and Dona.
As told to Sprudge by Kayleigh Bortolussi.
For those who aren’t familiar, will you tell us about your company?
Slow Hurry is currently a roaming espresso bar serving exceptional coffees and teas to the Youngstown, Ohio area. Headed by owner and long time barista, Kayleigh Bortolussi, Slow Hurry has been serving a hyper local menu with an emphasis on quality and consistency for the last three years. Coffee is always the focus of our menu, even in our small mobile operation. After years on the road Slow Hurry is set to open a micro coffee shop in partnership with another local business, Stylogarten. Our combined vision is to create a space centered around genuine human connection and community collaboration.
Can you tell us a bit about the new space?
Our new space in partnership with Stylogarten will be a low key social club. Our intent isn’t to be a bustling cafe, rather a laid back space that is comfortable to sit and chat in, or listen to music with us, or just hang out for a few minutes and enjoy your drink in the moment. We encourage people to bring a record to throw on (we all love music and finding new music) and hang for a bit. The other part of the space is an established barber studio called Stylogarten. We share similar values as businesses and as people so it makes melding the two different businesses seem easy and natural for us. For Stylogarten the partnership is a step in a direction for them to bring back the “good old days” of barbering where the shop was a community hub where people from the neighborhood and friends gathered to share a part of their day together. By bringing coffee to the space it makes that vision even sweeter and will allow us to create a laid back social environment where all are welcome.
What’s your approach to coffee?
Slow Hurry is headed by a barista with over 12 years of experience working in many different styles of cafes and coffee shops. After not feeling fulfilled in the way the coffee was being served at these various places, and reaching the end of the road managing a handful of local coffee shops over eight years, Slow Hurry was created as merely an outlet to serve coffee the way I wanted to. Not only that, but to educate people about coffee and show them new ways to enjoy coffee than they may be used to. We keep our core menu hyper local, using local roasters for coffee and supplies, local bakeries for treats, and local artists for merch and design collabs. Our menu itself is centered around traditional coffee drinks but with modern amenities. Our sizes for hot drinks are traditional but we like to also give people what they want by offering larger iced drinks. We use simple pricing: one price no matter what milk your choosing. We have found that people like having to think less about their order and get right to enjoying their latte.
Having an easy to navigate menu with a few options is important to us. We don’t offer cold foam or make super sugary drinks because we want you to taste the coffee that many people worked very hard over a long period of time for you to enjoy. We take the less is more approach. We do offer seasonal drinks that are unique and fun, like our signature Blood + Honey espresso tonic, but we also offer the seasonal classics like house Pumpkin. We believe it’s our job as the barista to showcase the coffee in it’s best possible form to give respect to all those who brought the coffee to your cup. We make coffee for your enjoyment.
Any machines, coffees, special equipment lined up?
For the new space we are adding another machine to our arsenal, a custom painted Slayer Steam single group paired with our tried and true Mahlkönig K30 Air grinder. We are keeping our current machine, the workhorse La Marzocco Linea Mini for our event and catering services but pairing it with a new (more mobile friendly grinder), a Mazzer Major. We will also be adding a rotating selection of roasters for our hand pour menu while keeping our core partnership with Branch Street Coffee Roasters intact for our house espresso and coffee options. We aim to offer and emphasize different hand pour methods as well as approachable and quick options brewed on our Fellow Aiden brewer. We have been using the Aiden for six months now in our current set up and love it for operations of our size.
How is your project considering sustainability?
Slow Hurry since day one has always put sustainability at the forefront of what we do. We try to order as little off of the internet as possible, getting as much supplies locally as we can. When we do have to venture online for things we choose companies who share our values like Tossware for our iced cups and biodegradable agave straws for their eco friendly aspect as well as their durability (we don’t want paper straws getting soggy before you can finish your drink). We also always choose recycled paper options whenever possible for to go stuff. Beyond the operational sustainability decisions, I thrifted or purchased second hand all of ceramic cups, we have ran a thrifted line of hand printed tees. With our current build out we are utilizing places like Construction Junction in Pittsburgh, PA for things like reclaimed cabinets and building materials for our bar as well as thrifted furniture. It’s important to me to show people that you don’t need to buy everything that’s “top of the line” or trendy brands to create a place that people like coming to and to avoid adding to landfills as much as we can.
What’s your hopeful target opening date/month?
We are on track for opening in October of this year.
Are you working with craftspeople, architects, and/or creatives that you’d like to mention?
Yes! Kara and Quinn with Branch Street Coffee Roasters, Spirit Tea Co. for our amazing tea menu, Matt with Invoke Coffee Equipment (and Service Layer Tech Network) for keeping my well loved equipment in the best shape and bringing my custom painted machine dreams to life, and Kiernan with Stylogarten are all key to Slow Hurry’s current and future success.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for getting to know Slow Hurry and hearing about our new community social project with Stylogarten.
The 2025 Build-Outs of Coffee is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, La Marzocco, Ceado, and Dona.
