‘A happy, vibrant place.’ Take a look inside Bellefonte’s newest coffee shop

After spending 10 years in the coffee business, local entrepreneur Bromlyn Fitzgerald decided that her next coffee-related endeavor needed to be a shop to serve as her permanent home base — and she’s finally gotten it.

Shaky Hands Coffee Shop, located at 106 W. Bishop St. in downtown Bellefonte next to the Cadillac Building, first opened its doors to the public on June 3 at its soft opening, with a grand opening held Saturday, June 7.

The new shop is Fitzgerald’s fourth coffee-related business venture in Centre County — in 2015 she opened the Daily Dose Cafe in Geisinger Gray’s Woods, she launched the now-retired mobile cafe Bees Knees Coffee in 2019 and in 2023 she briefly operated the Up Up and Away Cafe in the State College Regional Airport.

Though she now lives in Huntingdon, Fitzgerald told the CDT that her heart lies in her hometown of Bellefonte.

“Bellefonte is such a special place with so, so many amazing people living here ... I have so many memories growing up in this town. It’s a really special community to me,” Fitzgerald said. “When I moved into my first apartment here in 2016, I really started to fall back in love with Victorian charm of Bellefonte, and after two years of running Bees Knees I knew I needed to open a permanent shop here.”

Creating a community space

She also knew she wanted Shaky Hands to serve as an “eclectic, cute, warm and inviting space,” that would easily blend into the fabric of downtown Bellefonte’s many vibrant businesses.

To that end, she’s painted some of the walls of her coffee shop pink, her favorite color. Another paint job could be coming in the near future to add some mint-green splashes of color to the otherwise pastel-pink and white space, she said.

The walls are also adorned with rotated art pieces created by local artists — a feature that Fitzgerald hopes won’t just liven up the shop, but will also catch the attention of her customers.

“We want to feature local, Pennsylvania-based artists on the walls of the dining room, which will also double over as sort of a mini art gallery,” Fitzgerald said. “Hopefully people will see the cool art in here and feel compelled to look up the artist, give them a follow and maybe even buy a piece or print to support them too.”

When customers walk through the shop’s front door, they’re greeted by the colorful, art-filled dining room that has a variety of tables where people can work or socialize.

From there, customers walk through an arched hallway with a bathroom on the right side to a small back room that holds the kitchen and the counter where orders are taken. A patio and grassy area are also located behind the store.

“I absolutely love the vibe in here, it’s such a happy, vibrant place,” Howard Township resident Angie Stark said Tuesday during her first visit to Shaky Hands. “The staff are so polite, the service is excellent and the food was really tasty too. We’ll definitely be coming back, 100%.”

While the shop is finally nearing its finished appearance, it was far from smooth sailing to get the space looking like it does today. Fitzgerald originally planned to open the business in March or April but said a lot of hurdles — including some frustrating building code and electric wiring challenges — had to be overcome.

“We did expect some challenges to pop up with the building renovation process, but I definitely think that we got a bit more than we bargained for,” Fitzgerald said. “Ultimately the wait was worth it though — this place looks amazing, and I’d happily sink all of those hours back into it again if I needed to.”

What’s on the menu?

As far as the shop’s beverage offerings go, its menu features a selection of coffee and espresso-based drinks, teas, lemonade, hot chocolate, milks, an Arnold Palmer drink and more. Customers can expect espresso tonics and refreshers on the menu at some point as well.

Shaky Hands also offers various foods, including traditional breakfast items, baked goods, sandwiches and dips. A selection of soups and paninis from Fitzgerald’s days at the Daily Dose Cafe will also be added to the menu in the near future.

“Since opening the shop, I’ve already had so many people from my past jobs stop in to grab a drink and say hi, with a lot of my Geisinger friends asking about whether or not I’d be bringing back the food I served there,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s been really rewarding to not only see supporters from my past in here, but a pretty large amount of customers I don’t recognize either — the support that we’ve seen overall has just been incredible.”

Moving forward, Fitzgerald would like to eventually host events in the coffee shop and its grassy yard, including sip and paint sessions, open mic nights, trivia events, movie nights and more.

For now though, she’s just hoping that Shaky Hands continues to find the same success that it has in its early days.

“Ever since the soft opening, we’ve had people in and out of the shop every single day — there have been some points where business has been nonstop, which hopefully is a great sign for the future,” Fitzgerald said. “Shaky Hands is the product of 10 years of hard work in this industry, and I just hope people enjoy coming here as much as I’ve enjoyed the journey to this point.”

Shaky Hands Coffee Shop is closed on Mondays and open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. More information on the shop can be found on its Facebook page, Instagram page or website.