When someone owns a Kowaluska piece, they don’t possess a mere bottle opener or ice cream scoop.
Calling it art doesn’t quite cut it either.
Whether it’s a coaster or serving tray, the item is the culmination of 30 years of aerospace engineering and manufacturing experience at the hands of Kowaluska founders Matt Galuska and Eric Kowal.
Materials are aerospace grade and come with vernacular mostly familiar to engineers—a bottle opener composed of a solid bar of aerospace-grade 300 series stainless steel, coasters made from C360 brass bar stock that are individually laser-serialized, and trays, lowball tumblers, and scoopers crafted from 6061-T6 aluminum.
“What you see is what you get. Nothing is fake underneath and plated with something else on top,” Galuska says.
Flaunting a straight-forward palate of black, silver, or copper, the elegantly fashioned pieces have a masculine quality suited for display on a kitchen countertop, at-home bar, or on a centerpiece coffee table rather than shoved in a drawer.
However, with materials good enough for airplanes, they can handle the rough treatment and are the ultimate definition of form and function.
“We really want people to use it every day. Yes, it’s high-end but it’s not just only for special-occasion use,” Galuska says. “There’s no reason they can’t be left for the next generation.”
Co-workers who quickly became friends in the high-pressure intense problem-solving realm of aerospace manufacturing, Kowal approached Galuska with an idea that would become the business whose name is the union of their surnames.
Kowal recalls, “One day I was in my office looking at a customer request for a particular part. Almost all aerospace parts have nicknames. Around the shop, we affectionately called it the Party Platter. Then inspiration came: Why not use this as a party platter? It would make a great conversation piece when having people over. From that moment I couldn't stop thinking about that idea and what other products people may want.”
They aimed to fill a niche that merged high-end unique pieces with this specialized skill set and level of manufacturing expertise. They designed every piece themselves and rolled out their lineup based on their own home items that they reached for most often.
Many Kowaluska items become something-for-someone-who-has-everything gifts. Their wow factor also has admirers who want a handmade, unique amenity for themselves.
“When the first few sales came through, it really helped vindicate our vision,” Kowal explains. “Knowing that what we were working on was something people wanted and that Matt and I weren't alone on an island in our idea.”
So stunning, these pieces have the power to render those who touch them practically speechless.
“The most rewarding part is when you put this in front of somebody and they genuinely don’t know what to say,” Galuska says. “They’re playing with it and after a while they say, ‘Wow, this is really exceptional.’”
