Gypsy Beans marks 20 years as Gordon Square anchor

The Gypsy Beans drink menu, which includes seasonal specials.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nearly 20 years ago, Nicole Gillota-Brichacek opened Gypsy Beans & Baking Co. on a worn stretch of Detroit Avenue, just as the idea for the bustling Gordon Square Arts District was starting to come to life.

Now one of the busiest neighborhoods on the West Side, Gypsy Beans, 6425 Detroit Ave., was the first new business when the city officially coined the area the Gordon Square Arts District. Gillota-Brichacek opened the coffee shop in January 2007 but signed a lease nine months earlier to take over a corner that formerly housed an abandoned drug store.

Sandwiches and Stromboli from Gypsy Beans.

Gillota-Brichacek spent those nine months renovating the space, which she described as “pretty rough,” before opening its doors. Floors in the upstairs apartment units were so worn down they were see-through. She also found a sign for the old Gordon Square Pharmacy in the basement, which still hangs on the wall to commemorate the building’s past life.

Nicole Gillota-Brichacek opened the coffee shop in January 2007 as the first new business when Cleveland officially coined the area.

“It’s been nonstop ever since,” she said.

During Gypsy Beans’ first year, the Gordon Square streetscape project began, and the entire street in front of the store was ripped up. At the time, neighborhood residents organized a fundraiser — before the days of GoFundMe — to help pay the bills.

“They really supported the mission to be a third-place environment and a coffee shop for the neighborhood,” Gillota-Brichacek recalled.

Soon after Gypsy Beans, other neighborhood staples like Luxe Kitchen and Lounge and Rincon Criollo filled nearby storefronts. In the two decades since Gypsy’s inception, the surrounding blocks have grown with new businesses and residents.

Gypsy Beans & Baking Co. has evolved from serving progressive dishes to focusing on seasonal, local ingredients while maintaining its neighborhood institution status.

“You could feel the momentum of what Detroit Shoreway and Gordon Square wanted to do, and it was just being patient for it to happen,” Gillota-Brichacek said. “It’s just been a turn of really amazing small businesses that focus on the arts and artistic things.”

Gypsy Beans was Gillota-Brichacek’s first business, although she spent the prior decade working in small, women-owned coffee shops and bakeries.

In the two decades since opening Gypsy Beans, she’s developed a core of regulars and a family of both current and former staff members. In the coffee shop, she’s seen people celebrate a baby’s birthday, grieve a loss, bring people in from out of town to impress them and stop in to work on an average weekday.

“To be an institution like that for a neighborhood is huge,” Gillota-Brichacek said. “The babies that were born the day that we opened are now through their first and second years of college.”

Gypsy Beans has evolved while maintaining its cozy, accepting core. The menu has changed over two decades, with a few classics like chili, chicken salad and a BLT remaining from the beginning.

“It’s funny because I think our menu when we first opened was more progressive than what Cleveland was ready for at the time,” Gillota-Brichacek said, recalling duck confit risotto on an early menu. Additionally, at the time, many coffee shops didn’t have robust food options like they do now.

Since then, they’ve pivoted to an approachable café that prioritizes seasonal, local ingredients. Gillota-Brichacek shops at local farmers markets and the West Side Market for ingredients and has her own farm where she grows fresh ingredients for the café.

Gypsy Beans’ food menu features all-day breakfast sandwiches, grab-and-go options like quiche, stromboli and burritos, sandwiches, wraps and salads. Nearly any dish can be made to accommodate dietary restrictions, including vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free. Gluten-free and vegan pastries and bagels are also available.

Even though Gypsy Beans makes all its sandwiches, soups, wraps and baked goods from scratch in its one kitchen in Gordon Square, the location doesn’t have a stove. When Gillota-Brichacek moved into the building, it wasn’t feasible to install a ventilation system with apartments upstairs, so she pivoted to cooking everything in the oven — from chili to broths for soups.

As for drinks, Gypsy Beans has always operated a manual espresso machine from Italy, which Gillota-Brichacek thinks is one of the only such machines in the state. The lever-driven machine utilizes a piston system so it is fully controlled by the baristas. The shop is on its second machine since opening.

Red Cedar Coffee Co. in Berea has been Gypsy Beans’ small-batch roaster since the beginning, and the roaster produces four blends specific to the cafe.

The passport latte menu has also been a special touch since the shop opened. As an avid traveler, Gillota-Brichacek created flavored drinks inspired by places she’s visited. When she opened, house-made syrups weren’t as common as they are now.

Flavors include the Galapagos, featuring chocolate, praline and caramel — the combination known as turtle candy. Gillota-Brichacek’s sister lived in Ecuador, and the drink is a nod to the famous turtles of the Galapagos Islands.

Another cheeky option is the Kissing Cousins, a mix of Irish cream and amaretto that nods to the idea that Italians and Irish are “kissing cousins” because they share the Catholic faith.

Smoothies and Sub Rosa Tea also round out the café drinks menu.

The business has also grown in other ways — Gillota-Brichacek added catering nearly 12 years ago and has operated a permanent café at Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park for three years.

When Gillota-Brichacek looks back on Gypsy Beans’ 20-year history, there have been many highs and lows. The toughest, undoubtedly, was the COVID-19 pandemic, when she seriously considered giving up and closing the shop.

However, one customer reminded her why it’s important for her to stay in the neighborhood. A man moved from out of state to Cleveland on March 1, 2020, right before major shutdowns, and started coming to the café daily to pick up coffee.

“One day he came in and was just like, ‘I am so grateful that you are here. I haven’t had a chance to meet anybody, my family is over 300 miles away, I work remote — I haven’t seen another human being other than you guys for 72 days,’” Gillota-Brichacek said.

“I started bawling. I’m like, ‘This is why I’m not quitting because I want this to always be that place for anybody that walks in the door.’”

While celebrating the café’s 20-year anniversary, she’s always looking ahead at what the next two decades and beyond will look like for Gypsy Beans.

“How do we maintain that physical, emotional relationship with our customers every day to be everything that they want?” she said.

Gillota-Brichacek helms a staff of nearly 20 people at both locations who are integral to the welcoming experience that Gypsy Beans has offered for two decades.

“It boils down to having love for what we do,” she said. “And it’s beyond even me.”