Studio Cafe opens in downtown Duluth

DULUTH — Creative-minded coffee lovers now have a new place to indulge in both caffeine and the arts following the opening of Studio Cafe on Sept. 8. A grand-opening event will take place Oct. 26 and 27.

It’s located at 102 W. Superior St., in the former home of Dream Cloud Coffee Roasters which relocated further up the North Shore after about a year in the space.

Studio Cafe offers supplies for patrons to work on traditional arts and craft mediums such as painting, writing, crochet, music and more. Games and books are found on the shelves.

It’s also home to a Olympia SM4 typewriter from the late 1950s, available for use to craft a poem, note or love letter.

The menu features locally roasted Underwood coffee, Spirit Tea and food, paired with events such as free tarot readings and live music. It is also open to groups as a regular meeting space.

Hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day.

Renovations to the revisioned downtown cafe included a fresh coat of bright paint to the walls and floors, in addition to wood paneling, decorative ceiling tiles and thrifted light fixtures. Green tile was added to the coffee bar and countertop. The work of local artists is displayed throughout.

Under a two-year lease, the space serves as an incubator for owner Peter Pascente’s vision of a larger creative coffee shop concept that is in the works just a few blocks away.

Following the closure of Young at Heart record store in 1999 after 43 years in business, the building at 22 W. First St. that served as its home since 1972 sat vacant for 20 years.

The sizable record and book collections of late owner Richard Wozniak were sold, and the Minnesota Historical Society snagged several items for an exhibit on musical memories.

“I've been into vinyl for quite a while. Maybe it's part of what made me so interested in that building, was the history,” Pascente said. “My neighbors actually gave me some old 45 sleeves that have the Young at Heart branding on them. Those will have a home in the shop somewhere.”

According to a St. Louis County sales study, Pascente purchased the 3,750-square-foot building in March 2022 for $54,000 from Bailey Properties of Duluth.

Constructed in 1893, it’s listed on the National Historic Register as the Farrell Plumbing Building. A third story was added in 1910, and a rear addition in 1941. It was also home to Paradise Diner in the 1920s.

Pascente anticipates his plan to transform the space into a multi-level coffee shop, performance venue, educational room and art gallery will take roughly two years.

“What we'll have to do is essentially gut the entire thing, which really there's not much left to gut,” Pascente said.

Old door frames and molding have been set aside to eventually be repurposed for use in the main cafe area. Forgotten music records, record equipment, periodicals and other remnants from Young at Heart have been relocated from the basement for safekeeping.

A new roof was installed by the previous owner a decade ago, likely saving the building from further deterioration, according to Pascente.

The project will be quite an undertaking, said the 34-year-old entrepreneur. The structure is in need of new floor joists, plumbing and electrical infrastructure before the cafe build-out can begin.

The front facade recently received a facelift with the help of Bedrock Flint Inc., a Duluth-based masonry company that reinforced and rebuilt it using the original red bricks.

“It turned out amazing,” Pascente said. “The next step is figuring out windows and a storefront. That'll help really brighten up the street there a little bit.”

To help finance the brick restoration, Pascente tapped into a $50,000 advanced loan from the Duluth 1200 Fund.

“The idea there is that if the money is used to create full-time jobs within two years or so, that portion of the loan is forgivable,” Pascente said. “I'm working with the Entrepreneur Fund to work through the funding for the remainders and the renovations.”

He is also working with a commercial architect from Brick and Mortar Design to determine the capabilities of the space. He anticipates the renovation will begin in mid-2025.

“I just imagine beautiful, warm wood floors and exposed red brick. I think it would make for such a warm and inviting environment,” Pascente said.

Once complete, the new cafe will occupy the first floor, and the second floor will consist of a balcony with extra seating. There will be dedicated space for rotating artist galleries.

“The thing I'm most excited about is that the third story in that building is set aside for wide open studio space,” Pascente said. “What I imagine is creative workshops, like classroom-style education sessions. Maybe yoga. Maybe dancing — these creative adjacent activities that help inspire us.”

The second and third floors also feature a tunnel of stained glass windows situated in the center of the building to bring in natural light. The basement contains the original storefront before the street was raised.

Pascente envisions a revitalized First Street, with new businesses recently popping up nearby such as the Rainbow Room vintage thrift store and All Game retro game store, as well as the recently renovated Cove Apartments above the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce and the Zenith DCHS apartments in the Historic Old Central High School.

“There’s a lot of movement,” Pascente said. “It might seem a little rough at first sight, but I think that there’s a lot of folks that live here and want to be here.”

In the meantime, Pascente works part time as a technology specialist at Allete/Minnesota Power while operating Studio Cafe downtown.

Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Pascente left the area after graduating from the Loyola University Chicago following a death in the family. Prior to moving to Duluth, Pascente was a Creative Technology and Design master's student at the University of Colorado-Boulder’s ATLAS Institute.

“It is comprised of many amazing, creative, technical, artistic individuals,” Pascente said. “That's part of the beauty is that it's such an amalgamation of folks from different backgrounds. And when you bring them together, magic happens.”

However, during the pandemic everyone began working entirely from home. Instead of going “stir-crazy,” he decided to make a change.

“I started looking all over the country for cool places that I'd visited, that I thought might be interesting to live in,” Pascente said. “Duluth struck me because it was this town on a hill next to this intense body of water that had a presence. It definitely had a lasting impact.”

To generate passive income, Pascente purchased an apartment building at 718 N. 7th Ave. E. in Oct. 2020.

“I was immediately drawn to the character of it. It's a cool old brick building,” Pascente said. “And I guess I like cool brick buildings.”

In order to meet other like-minded people and scratch his “creative itch,” Pascante began attending the Makerspace. This inspired him to blend all of his hobbies and interests into a space to share with others.

This story originally listed an incorrect college and program name and typewriter model. Peter Pascente graduated from Loyola University Chicago and attended the Creative Technology and Design program at University of Colorado-Boulder’s ATLAS Institute. The typewriter is an Olympia SM4. The story was updated at 9:40 a.m. Oct. 8. The News Tribune regrets the errors.