I love a good coffeehouse.

The smells. The bustle. The things I imagine being created behind all those laptops. Besides, everyone always seems so happy to be there.

And that made me wonder: What makes a coffeehouse great? Why do some succeed and others fail? And why do people flock to our area’s independent coffeehouses when there’s always another Starbucks up the road?

The Cornerstone Coffeehouse

When you walk through the front door of the Cornerstone Coffeehouse, you know you’re in a special place. You immediately hear the sounds of people talking and laughing. You sniff the enticing aroma of food cooking and then eyeball the wide variety of coffees and teas.

“You can choose from 12 different roasts or flavors of coffee, and about 25 different types of tea,” remarked co-owner Al Pera.

Besides the java itself, great coffeehouses often set themselves apart with the high quality of their food and their events. Cornerstone has both.

“We now have a full lunch menu with healthier options since many of our menu items are either organic or gluten free,” said Pera.

Live music fills the air on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, and you’re welcome to stroll through the art gallery, which features a different artist each month. For you foodies, the owners offer weekly cooking classes in their culinary kitchen.

The staff is another key differentiator, as veteran staffers get to know regular customers and the customers them.

“I am really proud of our staff,” said General Manager Nicole Miller. “We have people who have been here for a long time. For example, our baker, Cindy, has been with us for 12 years.”

That stands in stark contrast to the face-of-the-month at a certain coffee chain behemoth. Speaking of which, I asked Pera if it was difficult to compete with Starbucks.

“I don’t compete with Starbucks,” he said. “We’re just different. For example, we order our coffee on a Monday, they roast it and get it to us by Tuesday. We also have many fair trade and organic coffees to choose from. You can sit down and enjoy your coffee in a nice porcelain mug if you’d like.”

I had to agree with the quality of the food as I nibbled on a tuna melt and spooned down a bowl of thick and tasty split pea and ham soup for lunch. I followed it up with a refreshing glass of iced tea.

After 21 years, Cornerstone has not lost a beat, outlasting many other shops that have tried to compete.

“We at the Cornerstone care for the Camp Hill community, and the community cares for us,” said Miller.

Little Amps Coffee Roasters

Aaron Carlson describes his introduction to coffee roasting as half serendipity, half opportunity.

He’s from central PA, but spent years as a musician, traveling around the country before returning to Harrisburg.

“I fell for the style of coffee we do here while living in Oakland, Calif., a few years ago,” he said. “Blue Bottle Coffee was roasting in an alley behind my house in small batches. They’re now a $70 million company, so I thought, hey, why not give it a try?”

For about a year, Carlson roasted coffee in a warehouse, doing mail order and delivery. He opened his first shop on Green Street in Midtown Harrisburg in 2011. Things went well, so he opened a site downtown about two years later. He recently added a kiosk location inside Strawberry Square.

One of his first challenges was to communicate the value of carefully grown and lighter-roasted coffee. Back then, many of his customers wanted drinks that obscure the flavor of the coffee, made with caramel or, as he says, “that gooey pumped stuff” that chains offer.

“That’s OK when it’s cheap coffee or over-roasted,” Carlson said. “Now, my customers’ favorite drinks seem to be focused on the coffee itself and not what’s dumped into it. It’s trickier to roast, but the lighter roasting brings out a better flavor and makes it a little sweeter, so the demand for this style of coffee is expanding. I do all of my own roasting and actually sell roasted coffee beans to other coffeehouses.”

Little Amps also offers a number of events, such as live music most Fridays at the State Street location, and is starting to do more cuppings—coffee tastings—at the Green Street shop.

I asked Carlson what he sees for the future.

“Hopefully, more fun and good vibes,” he said.

Cafe Chocolate of Lititz

The main street of Lititz is a maze of small shops, restaurants and bookstores. Tucked among these places, about one-half block from the General Sutter Inn, is the quaint Cafe Chocolate.

“The Cafe Chocolate has been here almost 10 years,” said owner Janice Dull. “I bought the café about 2½ years ago. It was a fairly easy transition because I trained under the previous owner for a few weeks.”

The shop serves a wide variety of drinks—hot chocolate, espresso, cappuccino, chai latte, to name just a few. But the signature drink is the Turbo Hot Chocolate: a mug of hot chocolate with a shot of espresso to fire it up. And fire up it does.

“We don’t really see Starbucks as a competitor,” Dull said. “Our products are healthier and not loaded with sugar. We make our own whipped cream and use 65-percent dark chocolate. My customers love the many gluten-free dishes we serve, such as Portuguese chicken and rice, West African peanut chowder and even cupcakes.”

I enjoyed looking through the cafe’s menu, which includes flatbread pizza (either whole wheat or gluten free), a vegetable curry Siam with black rice risotto and, of course, “Chili con Chocolate.”

I spent a lot of time trying to decide on a dessert. The café has a dark chocolate fondue that serves four and chocolate-dipped berries. I finally decided on a frozen hot chocolate, which was excellent.

The Cafe Chocolate has a motto—“Chocolate for Life”—and it couldn’t be more appropriate

St. Thomas Roasters

Judging by the popularity and success of St. Thomas Roasters, you’d never imagine that it began 15 years ago almost as a notion.

“We had never run a business before and had no experience selling coffee,” said Geof Smith, who runs the shop with wife, Pam. “But Pam had always wanted to own a coffeehouse, different from her experience in the health care field, so when I left AMP, we made the plunge. We researched trade shows and other coffeehouses before we started.”

Learning how to roast coffee was a challenge. They started by roasting their own beans, but soon became a wholesaler, roasting coffee beans for a number of other businesses, which now include such popular spots as Char’s at Tracy Mansion, Café 1500 and Karns.

Linglestown is home to a number of upscale housing developments and is also on the commuting route to Harrisburg, so the shop has a steady flow of customers. At 10:30 on a Friday morning, when I met with Geof Smith, the place was already packed with patrons of all ages.

“Our customers have a number of favorite coffee drinks,” he said. “These include Colombian coffee, our own Linglestown blend, Almond Joy lattes, Americanos and London Fogs. They have a chance to enjoy their coffee and listen to entertainment on most weekends.”

I asked him about Starbucks.

“Starbucks is a competitor, but not a threat,” Smith said. “I must give them credit because they started the whole coffeehouse scene, enabling many of us to continue on with our own models.”

He sees business growth in roasting coffee beans and selling them on a wholesale basis to his customers. He currently roasts about 20 types of coffee beans by doing roughly 11 batches each day. He roasts between five and 30 pounds each time.

“We’re delighted we took the plunge 15 years ago,” he said. “There were many challenges along the way, but I wouldn’t change any of it.”

GOING THERE 

Cafe Chocolate of Lititz
40 E. Main St., Lititz
717-626-0123
www.chocolatelititz.com

The Cornerstone Coffeehouse
2133 Market St., Camp Hill
717-737-5026
www.thecornerstonecoffeehouse.com

Little Amps Coffee Roasters
1836 Green St., 133 State St. and Strawberry Square, Harrisburg
717-695-4882
www.littleampscoffee.com

St. Thomas Roasters
5951 Linglestown Rd., Harrisbur
717-526-4171
www.stthomasroasters.com

Don Helin published his first thriller, “Thy Kingdom Come,” in 2009. His novel, “Devil’s Den,” was selected as a finalist in the 2013 Indie Book Awards. His latest thriller, “Secret Assault,” was selected as the best Suspense/Thriller at the 2015 Indie Book Awards. Contact Don at his website, www.donhelin.com.