At 7 West 10th Street in downtown Erie is Cafe 7-10.

It’s been open for years, but the last few months have been complicated.

“There’s been such an up and down, you don’t really know what to prepare for,” said Mabel Howard, the owner of Cafe 7-10.

Howard has had to navigate the trade war between the U.S. and other countries.

Her coffee supplier gets coffee beans from around the world. They’ve told her they’re trying to keep prices steady.

“Obviously, we all have to go with the flow of what is to come. And that’s an element of surprise that everyone will have to do deal with,” she said. 

At Cafe 7-10, she said, coffee beans aren’t their biggest problem.

It’s been the ingredients that go into their desserts and some of their drinks. 

“Sometimes you don’t think about the simple things like chocolate,” Howard said.

“Like how it crosses over into everything. Chocolate is not just chocolate. It’s chocolate chips. It’s, you know, chocolate syrup,” she said.  

She said she is trying not to raise prices.

“We’re doing our best to do what’s right for the customers,” she said.

There was a couple at Cafe 7-10 who said they like to go to bakeries and cafes around the country. Despite the higher prices, they said it’s worth it. 

“We simply aren’t capable of creating these kinds of masterpieces ourselves, so we like to farm that work out to our lovely baristas,” said Steve Pope.

Pope and his fiancée, Patty Calbay, have noticed prices around the country become similar to the higher ones of Calbay’s native southern California. 

“It used to be California prices would be California prices. Everywhere else, prices would be their own thing,” Pope said. “But it seems more linear than I remember.”

As long as prices don’t get too high, they say they’ll keep going out to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Howard hopes customers will keep coming. 

“We’re hoping that, you know, that better decisions are going to be made on behalf of the country and small businesses in Erie and throughout the world,” she said.