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High Octane Coffee opens new location in Austintown
By Billy Ludt
AUSTINTOWN
For High Octane Coffee founder Joe Sylvester, coffee has always played a role in a lifestyle centered on automobiles.
The artisan coffee franchise opened its newest location Monday at 890 N. Canfield-Niles Road. Its latest shop brings the original’s aesthetic, integrating items often found in a mechanic’s garage into the decor, and brings them as car-themed drink names.
As a professional motorsports athlete, Sylvester said his work regimen requires a lot of caffeine. Coffee became a staple during nights in the garage working on cars, and trips to races across the country and in Europe.
At first, he said, the coffee found in gas stations – the kind brewed in large quantities – was all he drank. That was until Sylvester tried small-batch, artisan coffee.
“After that, the other stuff tasted like drinking hot water,” he said. “When you taste what coffee’s actually supposed to taste like, you don’t want to have the stuff in the gas station.”
Sylvester has raced off-road trucks, dirt-track cars and motorcycles, and holds a Guinness World Record for longest ramp jump in a monster truck. Every weekend he competes in regional dirt-track races. On top of that, he learned how to brew small-batch coffee.
“I’m pretty proud of it,” he said.
When opening High Octane, Sylvester said he wanted to create a setting different from most to attract a demographic that might not step into a coffee shop that offers artisan brews.
Instead of smooth jazz, High Octane plays loud rock and roll. Manager Dale Leatherberry said the shop resembles a bar, but serves coffee.
“We do have a unique style here,” Leatherberry said.
Leatherberry’s love for coffee came from working as a barista at both a Starbucks and Joe Maxx Coffee Co. in downtown Youngstown.
He said he plans to bring his experience in both corporate and independent coffee shops to High Octane. The new location added a drive-through window and offers lunch options.
An additional menu item the new location has is espresso poured over ice cream, a dessert that, Sylvester said, is a unique flavor popular in Europe.
Coffee at High Octane is prepared in American-made roasters and brewed using pour-over techniques in pots or single cups.
All its dairy products are from Baker’s Golden Dairy in New Waterford, and many of the other items are locally sourced.
High Octane’s first location is in Canfield, at 410 W. Main St. It has a kiosk in Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley’s Beeghly Campus on Market Street in Boardman, and it plans to open another location in Boardman next month.