A PennWest Edinboro graduate is living her dreams while giving back to her community.

Katie Spangenberg opened the Bean & Bear Cafe in the heart of downtown Edinboro.

She said there has not been many locally owned coffee shops in the area and she’s been looking to fill the need. All of the cafe’s baked items are homemade and their coffee is from Happy Mug, which is a locally owned coffee wholesaler.

The name is inspired by Spangenberg’s pets with a logo that was illustrated by an Edinboro graduate.

“We’ve already had some college students come in and sit and hang out at our bench and study, which has been great. That was one of the goals that I had was for college students to have a place to study not on campus, so we already have college students and just local people travelling,” Spangenberg said. “Our first Saturday open was homecoming weekend so that was great to get some alumni for Edinboro to visit the shop.”

The shop, located at 222 W. Plum St. in Edinboro, is still in its soft open with plans to expand the menu.