The Story of Slate’s Cafe in Lititz

By Lindsey McIntosh

The days are growing shorter, mornings are cast in shrouded gray, and the leaves are performing their final farewell. As the alarm goes off, many find themselves trotting into the kitchen to begin their daily routine—so, what is it that can hold such power?

Coffee. Or tea if that’s your thing. The sweet bitterness hits your tongue, and your eyes scream to life as the caffeine ignites.

While we all craft our variation of the beloved delicacy from home, whenever there is the chance to escape and step into the world, there exists such a place where professionals understand these delights better than anyone, and we eagerly hand over our dollars in exchange for bliss.

Cafés are havens, and baristas are the masterminds. In Lititz, as the trees grow bare and store windows begin to showcase the winter season, tourists search for their morning jolt or afternoon buzz, and there’s no place better than Slate Café.

Big City Dreaming in a Small Town

Slate owner, Laura Heller, always knew she wanted to open a café. The only caveat? She had her eyes set on doing so in a major city, somewhere like London, not the close quarters of Lititz, Pennsylvania.

Laura grew up in New Holland, PA roughly thirty minutes southeast of Slate’s front door. She has always been one to explore and learn from the world around her, which led her to the windy city of Chicago to attend the university for Urban Studies. She elevated her experience living in a city by getting into the barista scene, working at numerous cafés, yes, even the notorious mega-chain, “I feel like almost everyone starts at Starbucks. I worked at their flagship store, and it was huge. Famous people would walk in all the time, and I’d hear people say things like, oh my gosh, it’s Sandra Bullock. After that, I worked at a very anti-Starbucks café that gave the grungy, hipster 2000s energy. All the while, still in the back of my mind, I knew that I wanted to have my own café one day.”

However, it wasn’t just the passion for coffee and steaming the perfect pitcher of milk that drew Laura into business ownership, but the connection with customers.

“The most important reason that I wanted to do it on my own was because I genuinely love connecting with people. I love hospitality. I love that little three-minute bit that you get with somebody. Or when you remember someone’s drink, their name, or their life story, and you can just add to it every time you see them.” In Laura’s eyes, the soul behind running a café is the sense of community that naturally builds between the barista and customer.

Between latte pours, she dreamt of the perfect café, where international students or those away from home could spend their mornings, holidays, and downtime—the ideal safe space from the bustle of chaos.

Yet, after finishing graduate school, her dream hit the snooze button.

Laura wanted to see and do more. There was still a lot of life to live before finding the home of her future caffeinated dream. She began teaching English to non-native speakers, landing her in South Korea and unlocking a world of possibility.

Yet, there came a sense of fear for the endless pull to travel. She stated that she’s never been one to know her future, to create a five-year plan. So, when the dream of a café finally came knocking, spontaneity kicked in, and Laura knew it was time. With a grin and a head clear of societal pressure, she thought, maybe we can do this.

Slate (Laura’s Version)

While Lititz has had its share of cafés throughout the years, some might say it’s been a long time coming for Slate (Laura’s Version).

The business was officially bought in September 2019 by Laura, her sister Anne, and long-time friend John. The trio had a plate full of tasks to complete as new business owners, but they agreed that one thing could remain the same, “We thought to ourselves, the name is one thing we don’t really have to change amidst all the chaos of creating and prepping a new business to open.”

As for the drink and food menus, Laura wanted to have special nods to her travels and her love of adventure, so things like kimchi—also the name of Laura’s adorable dog—are prominent with dishes like the “K-Pop Club Sandwich” or “Bi-Bim Breakfast Bowl”. However, apart from showcasing her love of flavor, there are also nods to the woman who inspired her from childhood, Mama Heller.

“We were always in the kitchen. I had friends who were never told to spend time learning to cook, but we were constantly encouraged, and we loved it. I remember taking 4H cooking classes and being interested in culinary things. Being creative in the kitchen was always very important to me.”

Growing up, Laura and Anne were tasked by Mama Heller to make dinner once a week. Those moments are the ones that helped her continue to visualize the ingredients in more ways than just an additive to the dish, but more of a palate to ignite her next culinary treasure. Laura and Anne continued their cooking experiments when they lived together in Chicago, “We had these two guys that lived above us, and we’d invite them over to try our concoctions,” Laura stated that some of those late-night creations have remained some of the best meals she has ever crafted, despite not being professionally trained.

The creativity has seeped into the threads of Slate’s tapestry as well. Employees are encouraged to experiment and try new things, keeping the option for adding the next month’s seasonal treats open to anyone. As for some of Laura’s ideas, well, they at least warrant a chuckle out of her, “I swear that they all think I’m so weird. I’ll pop into the kitchen whenever I’m there and be like, “Guys, I have this crazy idea! Have weever thought about adding this and this to… and often they’ll report back and say that it was terrible, and I’m usually just like, Okay, that’s cool.’”

The ideas that do make it onto the menu are made up of ingredients from the local area. For Laura, keeping the menu items as local as possible was vital. On the back of the menu, customers can see what businesses have helped establish Slate’s mark in the community and bring some flair to a place focused on connecting with everyone.

And that means everyone.

“I love when there’s a line out the door.” Laura’s face sparkled with memory.

“You do?” The notion met with extreme caution.

“Oh yeah. I get so bored, and I want it to be snappy. I love managing the chaos. The act of helping 30 people get their drinks, I love the pressure of it. In my first barista experience in Chicago, we’d have lines out the door for eight hours straight. You never stopped making lattes. I am an enneagram 7. So I think that sums it up".”

Lines out the door were pretty much Slate’s big welcoming after being bought by the trio. In Lititz, there is the annual Fire & Ice Festival in February—the final salute to the winter season. Before the pandemic, the festival would occur in one singular weekend, welcoming thousands of visitors, professional ice sculptors, and themed food and drinks from local vendors. For a café, this festival is a haven for preparing warm drinks for people to sip.

“I remember so many of the other business owners coming in before the festival and making sure I understood how insane it was going to get. And I was like, I mean, ‘I think I get it’. And it was crazy, but it also remained our highest sales day until this past summer. I like that it is still around, but man do I miss that one weekend craziness.”

The festival is still around each year, but the one-weekend timeframe of it is long gone. Just as the worldwide pandemic spread, a parallel family tragedy took shape in Laura and Anne’s lives, making their first year of new business ownership the largest hurdle they ever anticipated.”From mid-March to early May, we shut down. Then we opened only on Fridays and Saturdays in May. June, we slowly added more days to the week. And by August, we were basically back open.”

“Covid made every step feel like you were walking through molasses. Everything just became a bit harder each day. It wasn’t until this past spring that I finally had a clear breath and felt like things were getting back to normal on all accounts of my life.”

For a new business, closing as soon as you open is the worst-case scenario. However, the pandemic was not the final chapter for Slate. Tourists still parade through town and seek out their beloved coffee spot.

“I’ve had people come into the shop, and I’ll ask if they’re visiting from out of town, they’ll say yes, but they’ll surprise me and say something like, ‘We stopped through for our first time three years ago, and we came here and had the most amazing experience that we keep coming back each time we’re visiting because we just love it so much.” And that makes having a foot in this town worth it.”

Laura’s view of community-mindedness is similar to the tourists who swing by throughout the year. She is not a Lititz native; she grew up nearby but discovered the planter-boxed streets later in life. Whenever a tourist stops by, she can make them feel at home, just as those in the town provided when she and her sister, Anne, opened their little spot.

The community that Laura fosters is loved and applauded by all looking for their stop of comfort on a trip full of unknowns—and that is something to appreciate.

The Barista Connection

Just as with any other profession, some people seek different values from the craft they know so well. One of the ways baristas can showcase their skill is through competitions. That’s right, barista competitions are real, and they are thrilling to observe—even Laura has been to one, not as a competitor but as an audience member, and they aren’t her cup of tea.

“I don’t really like the competitiveness of them. I'm a jack of all trades but a master of none when it comes to being a barista. I want to make the best latte, of course, but I am not someone who wants their passion to become woven into being a master at it. I want people to enjoy the drink and experience they’ll have in my café over the prettiness or meaning of the beverage. I fell in love with being a barista before competitions were a thing.”

In competitions, baristas craft narratives around the drinks that judges will evaluate. They aren’t preparing your everyday drip coffee. The overall story they are conjuring mirrors the time, attention to detail, and presentation of a beverage. Sometimes it’s political, sometimes it’s personal, but it’s always for the love of the craft.

Instead, Laura’s passion stems from her background in education and that endless pull for human connection. She shared that the six weeks she spent traveling around Europe meeting café owners for her graduate dissertation, some of whom created their cafés around a central focus, are what really grasped her.

One of the most impressive is a café situated near Santiago de Compostela, a municipality in north-western Spain, but most importantly the ending point of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, or Way of St. James—a rigorous spiritual journey many walk that leads to the shrine of the apostle James within the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which is said to hold the apostles remains. The café greets many who have embarked on a reawakening and provides a place of warmth for travelers to rest their feet or speak about their journey.

So, whether it is Laura’s adventures throughout Europe, baristas crafting a narrative for judges to evaluate, or café owners with a singular purpose, the end goal remains the same for all—to foster a connection with others. It is comforting to know there are places and people in the world who wish to create a beverage, space, and overall experience for people from all walks of life to enjoy.

Never Grow Up

“I’ve never been someone who knows their next step. I’m forty-one years old, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”

When asked if she could write a letter to her younger self, advising her or reassuring her, Laura was stumped, but only slightly, as anyone might be when asked to look back on life and reflect.

“I think I could at least say, you’re okay.”

There are countless pressures people face each day, and growing up, at least in America, you’re supposed to know where you’re going. Yet, Laura hasn’t lived a life following a specific path. It’s an honest journey to embark on, one that is frightening but also unexpected and endlessly rewarding.

For Laura, owning a café means more than just owning a small business. She can work with a substance people enjoy because it brings comfort and safety, a sense of love. Having the perfect cup of coffee can mean the difference between caffeinating oneself for the sake of getting through the day or remembering that time sitting at your grandmother’s table and taking your first sip of the same drink and hating it, but reminiscing how wonderful that day was and carrying it with you until you take that first sip once more and like a lightning strike, unlock a memory that you didn’t know was there. She works in a business that encourages people to appreciate the small moments, of meeting strangers and sharing a brief interaction that can shape someone’s day. So, if anything, she can look back at her younger self and thank her for never growing up, because we shouldn’t have to.

On your next trip through Lititz, stop by Slate Café and look for the energetic, full-of-life woman behind the counter. Chances are it’s Laura, and she is waiting to make you that perfect cup of memories.

Slate Café is featured in the coffee-themed Food is Love Lancaster Calendar, which can be found at the 16th annual Gifts That Give Hope gift fair held on Sunday, December 10th from 10am-3pm, where foodies can find gifts and a festive holiday atmosphere to grab a bite and catch up with friends in a unique holiday shopping experience.