Dead Sled Coffee brewing up heady mix of java, pop culture

Oct. 9—WILKES-BARRE — Something dark is brewing inside The Accelerator building on South River Street.

Dead Sled Coffee pairs horror classics and heavy metal/rock n' roll mainstays with coffee — ground and whole bean — for officially licensed collaborations that are perfect for those who believe every day is Halloween, and any one else who appreciates a fresh pot of java.

Mike Thorwart initially just built a website several years ago for some friends with a startup. An Air Force veteran, Thorwart was trained and worked in the IT field. From there, it turned into managing social media accounts, and, as he said, "Over time, it's grown and then I've taken over what you see today."

And what's seen today is a modern office, located right in the same space that local purveyors of fine soda, Parlor Beverages, calls home. It's a fitting match, given both entities' propensity to delve into the alternative world that is generally outside of the mainstream.

But that's kind of the point.

Thorwart explained that Dead Sled, "wanted to create an environment where everybody was accepted, and where there were no politics, there was no BS, just people sitting down, talking good music and movies, and having really high quality craft coffee, all at the same time ... we're all heavy metal fans, we're all horror movie fans, and it just grew."

With those two niches in mind, Dead Sled Coffee currently has music-collaborations with artists such as Rob Zombie, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, KISS, Skid Row, Disturbed, and Cypress Hill.

In the horror space, there's offerings including industry titans such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund, Friday the 13th's Kane Hodder, IT, Elivra, Vampira, Beetlejuice, and the legendary Tom Savini, to name a few.

Thorwart even noted some upcoming collaborations. He's recently gained right to HBO's Game of Thrones, and the recent spinoff, House of the Dragon. No products are available currently, but he estimates something to pop-up around the holidays.

With all that star-power on board, one might understandably think it's a headache, but Thorwart said otherwise, noting Rob Zombie and Dee Snider as prime examples.

"So, everybody does their own taste-testing and everything ... Rob was like, 'Look, I want USDA Organic. I'm a vegan.' Him and his wife, Sherri, are both vegans," Thorwart explained. So, we source beans for samples. We sent him like six or seven different origins of organic beans. And he sampled them and he got back to us in X amount of time." Zombie then produced his own artwork and graphics for the bag, being completely involved from the beginning.

The Snider collaboration, on the other hand, came about through social media.

"He was just talking about coffee on Twitter and I responded and like 10 minutes later, I had a DM from him. 15 minutes later I had a contract from his manager and 20 minutes later we were working on his new coffee," Thorwart said.

It seem as though Dead Sled Coffee is well on its way to being a force in its niche. In fact, during the pandemic, Thorwart was laid off from his day job, which he viewed as an opportunity to focus on his brand 100%. He put his customers first, and offered free and then discounted shipping for a period. Fairly recently, he was able to leave his day job and permanently focus on growing Dead Sled, as well as other endeavors.

Moving forward, Thorwart hopes to open a brick-and-mortar store in the area.

"There's no doubt about it, I want a horror-themed coffee shop so bad, that's blasting Deftones and everything, left to right. And you're just getting your ass scared to death, you know? You're just like standing in line and Pennywise comes out and he's going to kill you," Thorwart explained with a laugh.

In a more immediate time frame, Thorwart has also started a related apparel company. He's working on some more licensing deals for the platform that launched on Sept. 1, but you can check out what's currently available at www.bizarrothreads.com. Dead Sled products can be viewed and purchased from www.deadsledcoffee.com, and be sure to check social media as well for updates.

As far as downtown is concerned, Thorwart said, "Coming here to this building and working with the people that are in this building, I've learned there's some really cool stuff happening here. If you just open your eyes and realize ... there's fun stuff to do," though he did note he'd like to see more high-level concert bookings in his chosen genres, rather than commuting to Camden or New York for a show.

Dead Sled #OnTheStacks

Catch up with Mike Thorwart in the blu door studio: https://onthestacks.com/podcast/mike-thorwart-ep-125/