Grahams Coffee Parlor - truly the home of coffee served with a smile. Located in Niskayuna, NY, this quaint coffee cafe has endured many feats in just 9 months of being open.
“Got to get my elastic ready!” Owner/founder Katryn Malen (she/her) states as she emerges through a make shift walk up window with a coffee cup personalized with a name and smiley face. That was the first glimpse of community that Graham’s Coffee Parlor showed us. They don’t just serve coffee, Graham’s truly is a community.
Katryn goes on to tell me that her regular had made her a sparkly mask she’s delivering to her that following weekend. This sense of community wasn’t just with one customer, she (Katryn) had short less than a minute interactions with all of her customers in the hour I spent there - but they were meaningful interactions. She asks people by name how their kids are, how they are. Myself not ever meeting Katryn before our interview, she talked to me like an old friend, and her calm yet bubbly aura makes me crave returning whenever I can.
Nearly a decade ago as a Capitol Region native, Katryn moved to NYC to work in the coffee industry but after 5 years she returned. “I was always happy making coffee for people because you don’t go to a coffee shop to be upset, you go for your day to be better, and its an easy way to make people really happy”. So, she worked for a few coffee shops then realized she needed now to do it for herself. “Grahams is truthfully a state of mind. This pandemic has proven that because people are telling us they don’t want to leave, it makes them happy here. Everything on the menu is someones favorite thing, and I built this place keeping in mind that I don’t care how much money I make. If I was happy, people who work here and came here would be happy, and that’s what I did and all I’ve ever wanted. Its not about the best coffee, I have the best machines, but its more about how my guests feel when they’re here, how the drink makes them feel throughout the day.”
So, Who is Graham you ask? Graham is a family name that comes from Katryn’s mothers side. Inside the shop, she has drawn murals on the wall, everyone you see is someone she knows and has impacted her life and business. On the back wall is the beautiful portrait of her grandparents who originally owned the building back in the 1970s. To the right is her mother who was a rock to her growing up, and to the left her uncle whom helped her renovate the building. “It (Graham’s) makes people think of ‘grandma’, a comforting name that organically turned the business into Graham’s.” There is a personal flair wherever you turn In the cafe from those people in her life, to Sharon Springs granola on the shelves.
Organizationally, Graham’s had to take an overhaul. They have implemented online ordering, and ordering through mobile app is now available. The most impressive part was that Katryn had set up a walk up window for her customers. Graham’s originally is just a coffee shop, there was no walk up window or drive through, so Katryn had to get creative. She had an extra pastry case in the basement, and her innovative mind put it to good use. Her building has a driveway on the side, so she propped open one of her windows (pictured above) with the pastry case and made it a sanitary space for people to get their food and beverage passed through with a smile. “Sometimes Graham’s staff is the only people some people have seen in days - weeks. “ Katryn states she’s lucky enough to have this. She offers more food as sales have shifted because people aren’t inside. They now have incredible egg sandwiches because the demand is that people need food with their coffee. She says it’s extremely ironic - “I remember saying that I didn’t open a business to make just egg sandwiches but now we make awesome egg sandwiches that people order like crazy.”
Being a small business owner, regardless of what your business is, everything is always changing and you have to adapt with it as anything can happen tomorrow. “The first week was intense I was working with my staff member Marina and we were the only people each other was seeing, working all day together - crying not crying. The weirdest thing was I’m blasting Spice Girls and there are traffic jams at the gun shop next store. It (the pandemic) was effecting everyone in a different way. For me, and my business, i’m still in here and people are supporting me - buying gift cards, showing up.” Katryn attributes some of her hardworking fight mentality from her upbringing. “I come from a single mom house, there are bills that still have to be paid. If they shut us down for coffee, then we adapt. We change equipment, I’ll bring lasagna to peoples houses, I don’t care.”
Katryn jokes how she has to do something to memorialize sitting at the pastry case when this is over, and the hours on end of handing people their orders through. While this pandemic has brought a lot of positive things, testing new foods, making connections, thats also the person Katryn truly is.
Through all of this, she doesn’t approach adapting as a struggle. “The biggest struggle is mental endurance. Every day has been a battle not knowing what tomorrow will bring. I was already open 7 days a week, now I’m like WOW, in thought then I was working as hard as I could possibly work, now I have to work even harder.” She is here every day open to close and states from that “It’s not complaining, it’s the hustle of surviving. It’s the mental endurance needed to keep going no matter what.”
“The most important message I can provide my regulars, and the public who are thinking of giving Graham’s a shot: I’m a piece of normal, a steady normal slice in the world that is anything but normal right now.” She says with smile that “I already had a personal business, it’s a whole new level of connection. I’ms o happy to still bring happiness to people because thats the only way I can be happy. It’s a two way street at Grahams.”
Addmitingly, this was our first time at Grahams, and definitely not our last. Support your local small businesses, support other humans! As I said with our last story, champion other peoples passions. You can find Katryn and her smiling staff seven days a week at 3406 State Street, Schenectady NY, 12304. Call in orders are helpful, so they can be reached at 518-527-1202.
They’re also on Instagram at @grahamscoffeeparlor and grahamscoffeeparlor.com.
// Please note all quoted statements above are those of Ms.Malen and not reflective Faiella Studios.