PODCAST: Brad Stefanoni, Root Coffeehouse

He has a biology degree and spent a good chunk of his career in public education.

So of course Brad Stefanoni now runs a coffeehouse downtown. 

Brad and his lovely wife, Andra, took ownership of Root Coffeehouse on Dec. 1, 2021. It was a move inspired by a love of community, a desire to give back, and some fun trips to small towns across the country. 

We caught up with Brad to talk about the why and how of it all.

You can listen to our full chat on the podcast. Here are a few excerpts from our conversation:

How did you go from working in public education to owning and operating a coffeehouse? 

I don’t know if there was a specific thing that led us to this. There were a few things over the course of a few years. We visited some really neat coffee houses across the Midwest and across the country in our travels. We knew at some level we wanted to be part of the community and give back and hopefully add to it. We just didn’t know exactly how. One thing led to another, we kinda created this opportunity, and it just happened. 

How did the resurgence of Downtown Pittsburg inspire you to take this leap?

If you rewind, 10 years ago we probably wouldn’t have done this. The development wasn’t going on downtown, the momentum wasn’t there. But you fast forward, (we have) all of these different developments, especially Block22 and that partnership with the university. You think, ok, we’re not an island. Other people are doing this. So let’s give it a shot.

There’s something kinda magical about a downtown coffee house. What role do you see Root playing in the experience of our community?

We really want Root to be the community living room. There are couches in there for a reason. We want the community to come in for a variety of reasons. We want to be a place they can gather socially and have those experiences that maybe you can’t have at school or at work or at home. We want to be a place to gather like-minded people, but also not-like-minded people, be able to cross paths, interact with a group you’ve never interacted with before.