Coffee People ft. Kyle Layton, Prismatic Coffee
We stopped by Prismatic Coffee in Salem, OR to sit down with GM and Co-Owner, Kyle Layton. We chat about how mentors impacted his trajectory into coffee and why you need to be ready to say yes when opportunity presents itself, or at least, willing.
Full video posted below, or watch and/or listen to Coffee People on:
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Guests: Kyle Layton, Prismatic Coffee, GM/Co-Owner
Based: Salem, OR
What they drink: Black coffee. "Filter coffee is king."
I've been to Prismatic Coffee a half a dozen times in as many months. Without fail, when I run into Kyle Layton, he skips the basic formalities of humans meeting to say, "Oh, you've got to try this." It's as if we've always been friends, and he already knows what I like. Inevitably, I'm glad that I trusted his instinct.
Between those visits and the several hours we spent together chatting for Coffee People, what I've learned about Kyle is that he is one of the humans who give a shit. He cares deeply about coffee, about the people walking through the door at Prismatic, and about providing them value through hospitality.
I've worked at just about every position one can have in a restaurant or cafe, seen just about every type of customer, and have experienced from both sides of the bartop the faltering of the hospitality experience. I'm old and cynical (by hospitality standards).
I don't blame the slide on employees, managers, or even owners. Times have changed. It is harder and more expensive to run a small business. The days of foundational hospitality skill building for 40 hours before they even start working with customers at the tipped minimum wage—less than $3.00 per hour in more than 20 states,* still—are long gone, and rightly so!
It is much more common now to receive the product but not the service. We've all seen the tablet flipped around at the register offering us the opportunity to tip and wondered, "What am I actually tipping for?" (Answer below)**
With each generation, some of that service experience and what hospitality can be when done right is lost as well. When I visit Kyle at Prismatic, I'm reminded of that old school care and appreciation for the customer experience. He takes pride in the service he offers and the skills he is able to pass on to the baristas coming up behind him.
As we chat in the interview posted below, he regularly brings the conversation back around to how he is at his best and most happy when he is offering up something to someone else. For all he has left to learn about being a manager, running a business, or collaborating with partners, he has hospitality down.
*Federal law requires employers of tipped employees to pay a minimum of $7.25 per hour of combined wage—tips and hourly pay. That enforcement has traditionally been lax until someone files a complaint. In the late 1990s into the 2000s, it was not uncommon for me to work for the tipped wage during training periods, or even for free while training.
**You're still tipping because we have an employment system that encourages businesses to open by offering them a cheaper form of labor. It is part of the social contract that customers tip to make up the difference at businesses that (in theory) may not have opened if they were basing labor costs on paying a living wage...
I'm not saying it is right or that I agree. I'm just acknowledging that without a major shift in how hospitality workers are valued, paid, and the customer's willingness to pay higher prices for their eggs and bacon at the diner, tipping isn't going anywhere.
"I'm just doing what I love.”
• Kyle Layton
Find Prismatic Coffee and Kyle Layton on social media: @prismatic.coffee and @barista_kylelayton.
Coffee People is sponsored by our friends at Roastar. They just won an award for their peel and stick tin can end at the Sustainable Business Awards from the Sustainable Business Council.
PODCAST TAKEAWAYS: The Second Meeting
- I know we’re in the holiday season, because that sweater fit perfectly back in the spring.
- There is a different perspective when you transition from barista or even manager to owner. You don’t look around and see only hospitality opportunities, but you see dollar signs—both coming in, in the form of sales, but also waste, labor, or utilities. The steady stream of out has to be offset by an even heavier stream of in.
While the outflow of dollars is often consistent, punctuated by spikes during unexpected challenges, the inflow of dollars may be more varied between peak hours, days, and seasons. - Being in charge means putting your ego to the side. You need to do the things that help the team, not the things that glorify you.
- Stress testing is a vital component of building a staff you can rely on. By letting them meet a challenge and work through it while monitoring them, then advising or teaching, you can be more confident they'll be able to meet the demands of business in the hours that you, as a manager, are not able to be there in a supportive role.
- Understanding where your business partners' and managers' skill sets are and how they might complement your own is important, as is understanding the bandwidth your partners have to improve, change, or modify. This isn't a hard and fast determination, but an ever-changing scale as the demands of the business evolve.
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can be a stumbling block, but it isn’t only a stumbling block. For Kyle, it also allows for periods of hyper-fixation. Sometimes that prevents him from going further, but with coffee, it has allowed him to keep expanding his knowledge base and skills.
An association between ADHD and hyperfocus, a state characterised by intense and narrow concentration on a specific stimulus, object or task for a prolonged period of time,[71] has been widely reported in the popular science press and media.[27] The phenomenon generally occurs when an individual is engaged in activities they find highly interesting, or which provide instant gratification, such as video games or online chatting.[7]...Hyperfocus is not a recognised symptom of ADHD in diagnostic manuals, but is frequently referred to as a symptom of ADHD in academic literature[72] and commonly reported in patients with ADHD in clinical practice.[27] ...A state of hyperfocus has been hypothesised as being beneficial, allowing individuals to focus on tasks for much longer than is typical.[72] Conversely, it can be difficult to disengage from and shift attention to other stimuli or tasks, leading to excessively prolonged attention.[71] - Per Wikipedia
- Defined: Forward Buy - To commit to purchasing coffee lots in advance to ensure that the coffee is delivered as close to harvest as possible. This planning and purchasing technique requires flexibility as timelines may change based on weather, labor concerns, or delays related to transportation, e.g., ship breakdowns or port labor strikes.
- Good Coffee - Deserves good packaging during transportation, e.g., GrainPro or Ecotact bags.
- When buying coffee, Prismatic's starting point is an 85+ point coffee. In a sign of the demand for specialty coffee, highly rated varietals are more widely available than ever due to the increased specialty production and improved farming techniques. Kyle likes to play with uniquely processed coffees that he can use as teaching and inspirational moments with staff and customers.
- According to a December USDA report, Brazil's Arabica coffee production, the more common specialty coffee bean, is anticipated to drop by 13%. "The decline in 2025 exports is attributed to Brazil's record export volumes in 2024, reduced coffee crop availability, which resulted in lower stocks, and new tariffs."
However, the Robusta crop, traditionally a more commodity-based coffee likely found in brands like Folgers or at large chains, is expected to increase by 19% due to changing weather conditions that favor the varietal's growth. - Kyle tastes coffee in shapes.
- January 15th is the 1-year anniversary of Prismatic Coffee’s shop in the Pringle Creek community.
- Hospitality requires the giving of yourself. There is a fine line between sharing honestly and sharing too much! I never wanted to bum someone out who was coming to spend their luxury money with me, but I also didn’t want to be “fake” or scripted. Kyle tries to be as himself as possible with the customers.
- Go into 2026 mindfully. Be appreciative, and support your local food banks!
Stay tuned for coffee education opportunities with Kyle at Prismatic. Until then, check out the Comprehensive Coffee Training class at Hacea Coffee Source (January 24th). This intensive day-long program, includes tasting, brewing, and roasting 101. Photo credit ©@HaceaCoffeeSource
PODCAST TAKEAWAYS: The First Meeting
Editor's note: This is a great interview, but even though we checked the mics during soundcheck, and then again during a moment of anxiety, something went wrong. The mics disconnected and the audio isn't great. The audio ended up being recorded from a distance through my cell phone. It's still worth a listen for the content. Many apologies to Kyle for not representing him and Prismatic to the best of our ability during this session!
- At Prismatic Coffee, they want to bring a modern specialty coffee movement to Salem, OR. They're trying to expand the taste profiles of their customers and raise the bar for what the hospitality experience can be. You don't go to Prismatic only for the coffee. You go for the community and experience.
- Kyle wears many hats in any given day—roasting, managing, or working as a barista behind the bar.
- I've never watched A Christmas Story. I've seen bits and pieces. I get the gist.
- It was one barista's kindness and show of hospitality to him as a child that started Kyle down the path in coffee. Later, brewing coffee for his college roommates (too many roommates) brought him so much obvious joy that one of them encouraged him to push further into the industry.
- Passion and hard work go a long way. At the advice of a mentor-like friend, Kyle tried to do one thing each day to either improve a skill, learn a new one, or expand his knowledge of coffee.
- He credits Tiffany Bulgin for being the most impactful mentor on his coffee journey. She hired him at IKE Box, a downtown Salem, OR cafe that also serves as a training business for young people. "IKE Quest internships train and mentor faltering youth to build self-sufficiency, good work ethic, and customer service skills."
- It took him seven years to get to the point where he felt he could say, "Yes," to an opportunity like joining the already established partnership that is Prismatic Coffee.
- Kyle is award-winning! In addition to his efforts as a latte art competitor, Prismatic Coffee was recently named Best Coffee Roaster in the Willamette Valley 2025. "Willamette rhymes with Damn-it." I saw that on a bumper sticker.
- The quality of coffee will impact a barista's ability to create latte art.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• The December Mixtape is all about swaying to the melancholy before we steel ourselves for another 365. Also, holiday music makes an appearance.
Ryan Woldt
Just for fun-ish:
During the early part of the COVID-19 lockdowns, my Wife and I attended a virtual table read of The Princess Bride, featuring many of the original cast, including Director/Producer Rob Reiner. When we met, The Princess Bride was one of my Wife's favorite movies. It has since become one of mine.
The full read was part of a fundraiser for the Democratic Party. Reiner was a noted political activist and supporter. The video above is of the entire read. It is fun, albeit a little (appropriately so) off-kilter. In September of 2020, we were all a bit starved for human interaction, but hadn't yet become a fully immersed virtual society.
ADVICE FROM A STRANGER
"After three minutes, you're not proving anything to anyone. The water is cold enough." • A senior citizen from Beaverton, OR, after plunging into Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe, CA.
