Stay Awhile Café is giving Firestone Park neighbors a new reason to stick around. The small, family-run spot opened on June 6, serving coffee, matcha, milkshakes, and pastries in a space where customers are encouraged to linger, read, and relax. With Portuguese and Filipino flavors threaded through the menu, the café aims to become a casual gathering place for the block around Brown Street.
According to the Akron Beacon Journal, the Borges family, led by owner Ana Borges, opened Stay Awhile at 1762 Brown St. on June 6. Regular hours run from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with extended summer hours planned in July and August. The Borges children help keep the place running, and Paulo Borges, who maintains his medical practice, expects to be behind the counter mostly on Fridays and weekends.
Menu and local suppliers
The café leans into a mix of comfort and global flair, pairing familiar coffee-shop drinks with items like ube lattes, galão, and pastel de nata. The family highlights local connections, too. Stay Awhile uses milk from Hartzler Family Dairy in Wooster and sources beans through local roasters linked to Akron Coffee Roasters. Baked goods from BREADS in Fairlawn bring European-style breads and pastries into the mix.
A family affair
The business is very much a team effort. As reported by the Akron Beacon Journal, Ana owns and manages the café while Paulo, who trained in Portugal and completed a residency at Barberton Citizens Hospital, splits his time between medicine and the shop. Their older children, Sydney, Suzana, Sadie, and Simon, pitch in behind the counter to keep the operation feeling like a neighborhood extension of the family home.
Neighborhood spot
In a part of Akron where the retail mix has shifted over the years, a small café that leans on local suppliers and invites people to slow down offers a quieter kind of pull. The Borges family says they want Stay Awhile to slip into daily routines, whether as a morning coffee stop, a place for students to study, or a summer-evening meetup. They hope that staying local with their ingredients and partnerships helps deepen ties with both regulars and nearby businesses.
