YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – A coffee shop with some Cuban-style specialties will open soon downtown.

Lucky Day Con Leche, operated by Melanie Clarke-Penella and Lindsay Plaskett Fleuriet, will open later this year at 26 N. Phelps St., which is on the Phelps Street pedestrian corridor.

Clarke-Penella owns the building, and currently operates Blue Heron Antiques there.

On Tuesday, the city’s design review committee approved her proposal to open a takeout window at the rear of the building, and construct an overhang across the rear exterior wall. The overhang would cover the takeout window and a doorway, and would be made of wooden shingles.

The committee also approved signage for the shop.

The takeout window will open at 7 a.m. to offer beverages to downtown workers on their way to their offices, Clarke-Penella said. 

The shop is a block away from the children’s services and the Voinovich buildings, where hundreds of people work, she noted. It will offer some tropical-style specialties, including its specialty, cafe con leche.

When Clarke-Penella lived in Key West, Florida, she started her mornings with a cup of cafe con leche.

“It was our morning staple,” she said.

The drink starts with a bold Cuban-style coffee, softened with warm and creamy milk, and house-made brown sugar with black strap molasses.

Other specialty drinks on the menu include brown sugar cafe con leche, canela cafe con leche (cinnamon flavored), vanilla cafe con leche, espresso, cortadito (sweet espresso with steamed milk, cortado (espresso with steamed milk) and Americano (espresso and water).

In the near future, Clarke-Penella will open a seating area for the coffee shop.

She will also open a grab-and-go market, that will include food items, in a section of her antique shop. The entrance to the market will be on South Phelps Street.

The design review committee also took the following action:

  • Approved a mural that will be painted on the vertical riser portion of the steps on a concrete public stairway between Phelps Street and Wood Street, downtown. When viewed from ground level, the mural will depict a Youngstown State University penguin logo on the lower half of the stairs, and a cardinal, which is the state bird of Ohio, on the upper stairs. The painting will be created by Color Ready Ltd., a local mural painting company, in cooperation with the Economic Action Group.
  • Approved construction of a 60-foot by 120-foot preengineered metal building, with a metal roof, behind Covelli Centre. The structure will be used for storage of chairs and tables. Currently, those items are being stored outdoors, because there isn’t enough space in Covelli Centre. The city of Youngstown, which owns Covelli Centre, will build the structure, which will not be visible from Front Street.
  • Approved a request by Youngstown Business Incubator to put up mounted letters on the front entrance of its YBI requests to put up signage at the entrance to its Tech Block Building 5, 252 W. Boardman St. (the former Vindicator building). The signage would reveal the name of the structure: Lamoncha Family Center for Advanced Manufacturing, in honor of Valley businessman Mark Lamoncha, who is a partner of YBI.
  • Deferred action on a request from Frank Watson, co-owner of His and Hers Barber and Beauty, 121 E. Rayen Ave., to erect a sign with the name of the business along the west-facing wall. The board wants to first see a photo of what the completed signage will look like.

Pictured at top: A rendering of the overhang and decor that will be installed at Lucky Day Con Leche, which is at the rear of a building at 26 N. Phelps St., downtown.