The Chairs That Don't Chase You Away

Seventeen-foot windows. Eggshell-white walls. Large framed photographs of coffee producers, not as decoration, but as the point.

Dynamic Coffee La Galeria opened in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighbourhood in March 2026, and the first thing you notice isn't the espresso machine. It's the faces on the walls: farmers from Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras whose coffee ends up in your cup. The space feels less like a cafe and more like what its name suggests: a gallery where the art happens to be people.

This matters beyond Pittsburgh. In Sofia, where specialty coffee culture is still finding its shape, the question of what a cafe should be remains open. Blue Bag Specialty Coffee's work with verified farms and small-batch roasting points in a similar direction. La Galeria offers a model worth studying for the questions it asks.

The Philosophy of Comfortable Seats

Co-owners Andrew Delgado and Dylan Thomas finished the shop's wooden seats, tabletops, and accents themselves. This is not a detail. It is a statement.

I tried to have the seats be as comfortable as possible. I like when people hang out and don't feel like the chairs are chasing them away.

Andrew Delgado

Most cafes optimise for turnover. Hard seats, bright lights, music just loud enough to discourage conversation. La Galeria inverts this. A long cupping table anchors the room and doubles as community seating. The natural light through those tall windows is soft, not clinical. Comfort here is not an amenity. It is an argument: that lingering is a ritual to be encouraged.

Faces Before Flavours

Delgado was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, into a coffee-producing family that eventually sold its farms amid low prices. In 2014, he opened a specialty coffee cafe in his hometown before moving into education roles. In India's Araku Valley, he trained Adivasi growers in specialty coffee production, processing, roasting, and barista skills. He later returned to Honduras to lead farmer education programmes for exporter Caffex.

This biography is the reason the producer photographs are on the walls.

I usually meet the farmers before even trying their coffee. For us the priority is to work with great human beings. Because of my coffee processing background, I am usually able to provide help to farmers to elevate quality or profile. We do it this way because the pillar of the relationship is the farmer, not the coffee. We can adjust and shape coffee, but not people.

Andrew Delgado

Dynamic roasts coffees purchased directly from producers in Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras, using importers primarily for logistics. The roastery sits in Carnegie, outside Pittsburgh: 5,000 square feet with a 15-kilo Joper roaster for volume and a Stronghold S7 Pro for smaller batches.

The Cafe as Beginning

Dynamic Coffee Roasters was founded in 2022 as a wholesale roastery, expanding in 2023 to help Honduran producers sell green coffee to other U.S. roasters. The first shop, 900 square feet in South Side Flats, opened roughly two years before La Galeria.

Преди печенето идва доверието - връзката между фермер и купувач

Now, with La Galeria focused on profitability, the team looks toward the next project: a shop in Honduras.

We want to create opportunities back home. It's important to know that no one wants to leave their country. We leave to seek better opportunities to grow. If our moving here and building this company here can in some way allow us to build opportunities for people in Honduras, I think this would be the next goal to hit.

Andrew Delgado

The cafe is not the destination. It is a proof of concept for something larger: a model that can be replicated at origin.

What Lingering Asks

Return to the image: the gallery-like space, the producer photographs, the hand-finished wooden seats. What does this cafe ask of its visitors? To slow down. To see the person behind the coffee. To understand that drinking a cup is also a relationship, even if you never meet the farmer whose portrait hangs above your table.

What would it mean if Sofia's specialty coffee spaces prioritised this kind of visibility and intentional lingering? Not as marketing, but as design philosophy. The question remains open. The chairs, at least, are comfortable enough to sit with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Dynamic Coffee La Galeria's design philosophy?

A: The cafe prioritises producer visibility and intentional lingering over high turnover. Large framed photographs of coffee farmers line the walls, hand-finished wooden seating encourages guests to stay, and a cupping table doubles as community seating. Co-owner Andrew Delgado explicitly designed the space so the chairs don't chase you away.

Q: How does Dynamic Coffee source its beans?

A: Dynamic purchases coffee directly from producers in Ecuador, Guatemala, and Honduras, using importers only for logistics. Co-owner Andrew Delgado typically meets farmers before tasting their coffee, prioritising relationships over product.

Q: What are Dynamic Coffee's future plans beyond the Pittsburgh cafe?

A: After La Galeria reaches profitability, the team plans to open a shop in Honduras, creating opportunities at origin and allowing the business model developed in Pittsburgh to benefit coffee-producing communities directly.