Reminders of the former occupant of the building at 3613 Sixth Ave. — Highland Park Hardware — can be seen throughout the refurbished space now occupied by Slow Down Coffee Co. Photo by Joe Crimmings

For 90 years, the two-story brick building at 3613 Sixth Ave. in north Des Moines was home to a hardware store that sold a variety of items to aid area residents in the upkeep of their homes and businesses.

Highland Park Hardware closed last December and the space it once occupied has a new tenant: Slow Down Coffee Co., which opened on Tuesday.

Reminders of the hardware store are visible throughout the new shop. Just past the entryway on the floor, for example, is stenciling welcoming visitors to the hardware store. 

Coffee shop owners Drew and Kara Kelso discovered the stenciling, which includes two roses, as they worked on refurbishing the floor. Numbers were also stenciled down the middle of the space. 

“The hardware store used to sell rope from a roll and an employee would walk down the center of the store, using the numbers on the floor as a ruler,” Drew Kelso said. 

A local artist restored the stenciling on the wood floor, which has been buffed to a golden shine. The Kelsos incorporated a rose into the coffee shop’s logo. The couple also reclaimed redwood panels that had covered the front walls of the hardware business. The panels were used to make a large coffee table and a narrow, stand-up coffee bar for customer use. In addition, the hardware store’s cash register counter became part of the coffee bar at which drinks are ordered and served.

“We reused as many things from the original space as we could,” Kara Kelso said. “All of the wood in the space is from the hardware store.”

The Kelsos began talking about opening a coffee shop in the Highland Park-Oak Park neighborhood more than a year ago. Drew Kelso, executive director of the Parks Area Foundation, has been involved with the area’s neighborhood groups for about four years. He said there was a need to have a place where people could hold meetings and other small community gatherings. 

“Being a coffee nerd myself, we just thought the area needed a coffee shop and community space to gather,” Drew Kelso said.

The opening of the coffee shop comes as redevelopment in the area is taking off.

The Hiland Bakery, which closed in 2019, reopened in January under new ownership. Des Moines Mercantile opened at 3707 Sixth Ave. The building that houses Chuck’s Restaurant is undergoing a $1.4 million historic renovation, and a local developer plans to buy and rehabilitate buildings at 3523 and 3524 Sixth Ave.

“There’s just a whole lot of things going on here now,” Drew Kelso said. 

Plans are also in place to redesign Euclid Avenue between Second Avenue and 12th Street by reducing vehicle travel lanes from five to three and adding bike lanes and on-street parking. The re-striping of the street was supposed to begin yet this year but the pandemic has pushed the changes to 2021.

The additional parking will help the coffee shop, Drew and Kara Kelso said. Also helping to draw in customers is Sixth Avenue’s high volume of traffic and the nearby bus stops.

The Kelsos have been planning the coffee shop for more than a year. When Bill Wheeler, who operated the hardware store and owns the 110-year-old building in which the shop is located, decided to retire a year ago, he offered to lease part of the former store’s space to the Kelsos. 

The hardware store closed in December, and in January the couple began demo work. The couple estimate about $80,000 has been invested to remodel the space and buy coffee-making equipment and supplies.

The couple had hoped to open the shop in the summer but paused those plans because of the pandemic. 

Currently, the customers are not allowed to sit and drink their coffee or other beverages in the coffee shop. Customers – and employees – all must wear masks inside the shop. 

“We’re trying to protect our employees and customers as much as possible,” Kara Kelso said. 
“Hopefully we can evolve to having limited indoor seating but ultimately, we want to be cautious.”

RELATED ARTICLE: More revival planned for Des Moines’ Highland Park area

The particulars: The Slow Down Coffee Co.
ADDRESS: 3613 Sixth Ave.
HOURS: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays. 
PHONE: 515-720-9379
ON THE WEB: www.restaurantji.com/ia/des-moines/the-slow-down-coffee-co-/ 
MORE ONLINE: To view a slideshow of photos from Slow Down Coffee Co., click here. 

An interior view of Slow Down Coffee Co., which opened this week at 3613 Sixth Ave. The mural on the wall was done by local artist Marissa Hernandez. Photo by Joe Crimmings