Hazelwood Cafe brings coffee and community to the neighborhood
the space and launch his business, he applied for a Small Business Administration microloan through Bridgeway Capital, one of seven partner institutions working with the SBA in Western Pennsylvania.
Businesses can receive loans up to $50,000, “and with those loans comes free technical assistance from the intermediary that you’re borrowing from,” said Kelly Hunt, SBA district director. “So they’re a great tool, especially for startups.”
It can be hard for new business owners to access to capital, Hunt noted, especially if the owner is younger and has little or no credit history. In Western Pennsylvania, the average microloan given out in 2024 so far is just over $33,000, she added.
“It would be difficult for [Gray] to go into a bank and get a traditional loan,” Hunt continued. “But our microloan program looks at more than just that credit score and more than just the collateral character of the person. The value of the business to the community is taken into consideration and that gives people a chance to get access to money that maybe they otherwise wouldn’t have had access to.”
With the loan, Gray was able to make much needed updates to the space, acquire machinery and hire four employees. The coffee shop partners with multiple local coffee roasters, Gray said.
“We work with Commonplace Coffee, Redhawk Coffee, ionized coffee and soon we’ll be working with 19 Coffee Company,” he continued. “We try to work directly with local folks. But my next journey is to learn how to roast.”
Gray has built relationships with neighboring businesses, including La Gourmandine, a French bakery, and Hazel Grove Brewing, collaborating on a beer.
“Their customers come over and have coffee while they eat their pastries,” he said. “When new businesses come out to Hazelwood, they reach out to us. So I think Hazelwood Cafe is setting the business standard of the neighborhood.”
When creating his business plan, Gray wanted to make sure the shop could support the neighborhood the way he was supported growing up here.
“We donate to charities for Christmas and Easter and we have different events throughout the year,” he continued. “The last event was beans to purchase for Steel City Smiling, which works to support Black mental health training.”
And the community gives back to Gray, too.
“Our regulars, or the people who live here, help out,” he said. “We added new tables and chairs and they wanted to be a part of it. So they helped build them. Some people sometimes dust or wipe the tables off, or just ask if anything needs to be done around the shop.”