The zen coffee shop in Lebo
Uptown Coffee strives to merge community tradition with a modern twist
Uptown Coffee, a community staple since its opening in 1995, welcomed a new owner last year — Nicole Simonian — who combines her fashion degree and love of yoga with coffee shop operation. With a year under her belt, Simonian feels “on top of everything.”
“I love where we’re at,” Simonian said. “I’m used to the flow now.”
Inside the bright and airy coffee shop, friends lounge on couches while sipping hot tea, PTA committees discuss budgets over double-shot espressos, and book club members munch on Mexican wedding cookies.
When Nicole Simonian took the baton as next owner of Uptown Coffee, she was no newcomer to the community staple on Washington Road. Back when she was a fresh-faced 19-year-old living on her own, studying fashion design and retail management at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Simonian was also an employee of Uptown Coffee.
Simonian never had a passion for baking growing up, but under former owner Elizabeth Boyd’s tutelage in the kitchen at Uptown Coffee, something clicked. Today Simonian thrives when baking times, ingredient measurements, and new recipe ideas are bubbling around in her head. She considers baking a form of gift-giving.
“What I really like about baking is you’re giving it to someone, and in a commercial setting that’s so many more people,” she said.
Simonian poured a lot of time into the shop during her early 20s. When her husband wanted to propose, he knew where to find her — the kitchen at Uptown Coffee. A lot has changed since that fresh-faced 19-year-old took a job at a local coffee shop. Simonian went on to earn her yoga teaching license in North Carolina, and then moved to Brooklyn with her husband, where their son, Adi, was born.
Despite moves and career shifts, Simonian and former Uptown Coffee owner Elizabeth Boyd stayed in touch. When Boyd started putting out feelers for interested buyers, she knew who to ask. Simonian has a love for the joint first kindled during college.
When Boyd first opened the shop, Pittsburghers weren’t quite sure what to make of a coffee house. Service was slow, and Boyd would often paint her nails in between customers. Today, Uptown Coffee is a community center. Simonian strives to maintain the atmosphere Boyd started with Uptown Coffee back in the ‘90s.
“I want to have this really comfortable, but joyful place and I like the idea of people catching up with friends or taking a minute to read…the extra things that aren’t necessary but bring enjoyment,” Simonian said.
Simonian works around the clock to make her dream a reality. When she stops by Uptown Coffee on Sunday evenings to work after hours, she often brings her 7-year-old son, Adi. With one hand he’ll tinker with mixing bowls and the industrial cooking equipment, and with the other he’ll munch on a raspberry oat bar.
“He messes around and eats cookies,” Simonian said with a smile.
Simonian relied on her fashion design and retail management degree while remodeling the interior and draws on color theory and interior design to make the space feel welcoming and uplifting.
Sadie Pillion-Gardner, 23, has worked at Uptown Coffee for four years, and appreciates Simonian’s updates.
“The energy in the shop itself has changed,” Pillion-Gardner said. “It’s brighter and feels more positive. The plants [Nicole Simonian] puts around make people happier and nicer.”
Pillion-Gardner admires Simonian’s new ideas, such as serving locally sourced coffee and more vegan pastry options. She thinks employees are more connected to the customers.
“I do feel like in the past it was go, go, go. But it’s OK to take your time and people will be patient, and you can still have a good time and not push yourself too hard,” Pillion-Gardner said.
Almost proving her point about the go-with-the-flow atmosphere, one employee dropped a pan by accident, making a loud bang. She looked up sheepishly and gave Simonian a quick thumbs up from the kitchen. Simonian smiled.
The relaxed atmosphere trickles into every aspect of Uptown Coffee, from the back kitchen to the barista bar. Upon entering the shop, visitors are greeted by the buzz of employee-customer banter rising above the whir of coffee grinders. Most conversations surround hot topics the baristas like to ask customers, like “What do you think of Taylor Swift?”
Pillion-Gardner said chatting at the bar helps her calm down if she’s making multiple drinks.
“Everyone is really busy and making drinks, but you have a flow going,” she said.
She looked over at Simonian with a smile and pressed her hands together.
“It’s the yoga,” she said.
Yoga is a natural group-bonding activity for the staff — one Simonian gladly picked up on. Some staff members teach yoga, while others love taking classes. Yoga and meditation helps Simonian in lots of ways, including persevering through a busy shift. On mornings where she doesn’t want to show up for the 4 am shift, yoga and meditation practices help remind her to be present.
“I can take a breath and enjoy it,” she said.
Matalee Peterson, a barista at Uptown Coffee, said the coffee shop pushed her to get involved with yoga.
“I’d never done it consistently enough to get something out of it,” she said, “But Nicole bought me passes, just randomly. She’s amazing.”
Simonian shrugged. Then the two shared a knowing look.
“We would go tomorrow, but we keep getting scheduled on our yoga days,” Peterson said.
Peterson was Simonian’s first hire. Competition for jobs at Uptown Coffee is steep, and Matalee stood out to Simonian because she moved from the west-coast to Pittsburgh on her own.
“If you can move yourself across the country, get an apartment, and take care of your cat, you won’t be apathetic about everything and I felt that was a good sign,” Simonian said.
While she admitted Peterson didn’t have much previous barista experience, she emphasized, “There are more important things than being able to do coffee.”
Initially as a customer at Uptown Coffee, Peterson noticed the joy baristas seemed to be having and admired the pastries made from scratch.
“It felt like the place to be,” she said.
But, Peterson was initially hesitant to apply for the opening.
“I didn’t think I’d be able to do it,” she said. “I didn’t think I could make drinks well, or match the energy well.”
Today, Uptown Coffee is a big part of her life. Her coworkers are her friends, and she works well under Simonian’s leadership style.
“Everything just flows smoothly and it doesn’t feel like a job.”
Simonian concurred.
“It’s the same lattes, same coffees, but the interactions are changing,” Simonian said.
She’s gotten to the point where she’s memorized people’s orders.
“Sometimes I’ll drive around uptown and see people and say, ‘Double shot espresso with skim milk,” she said.
Simonian added that because she’s worked at Uptown Coffee for so long, she doesn’t feel like a boss.
“Everyone feels like a coworker,” she said.
Matalee agreed.
“It would feel weird to call you the boss,” she said. “You’re a mentor.”
Simonian shrugged and smiled.
