Chances are good that Ann and Jorge Bailey will fare better at running Felida Coffee House than they ever did at being retired.
When Pines Coffee opted to not open a new coffee house in Felida Village, silent partners, Ann and Jorge Bailey and their two friends, Andrew and Melissa Bellah, stepped in and opened it anyway.
The result is Felida Coffee House (3602 NW 119th St, Unit 100), the new kid on the block in Felida Village, the “labor of love” for local developer Ron Edwards.
“When things didn’t come to fruition [with Pines Coffee], we took over the lease and changed it to Deep Roots,” said Ann Bailey, who retired from her nurse job last October.
Some retirement, right?
“I got a little bored,” Bailey admitted. “… So I’m glad to be working again, being hands-on.”
It’s essentially been all-hands on deck since Felida Coffee House opened on July 11 – and well before that, as their preview event on July 1 gave Bailey a glimpse into how the business would be received.
“We were just trying to showcase what we were going to be serving, and we had pastries from Bleu Door Bakery,” Bailey said. “We bought bites for 75 and almost had 500 people. It blew us away.”
While the turnout on July 1 rated as a surprise, the need for a local coffee house has been something long overdue, she said. You don’t need to see the lines of people waiting for a Deep Roots mocha, Loca Mocha (think cinnamon, spicy) or hand squeezed lavender lemonade for confirmation.
“We’ve been talking about this for a long time, because there was nowhere to go to [locally] for coffee,” Bailey said. “… We wanted a place where you can come in and sit down and have a conversation with someone and have it feel like a home away from home.”
Felida Coffee House, which will be serving locally-roasted Deep Roots Coffee and goodies from Blue Door Bakery, has an urban-loft look to it that ties in some Pacific Northwest elements into its 2,400-square-foot space.
Melissa Bellah even designed the snappy logo, which features a tree stump with roots.
“Because we want to be rooted in the community,” Bailey said.
Felida Coffee House, which will have its Grand Opening event August 26-28, is the fourth business to open in Felida Village, following Barre3, Edward Jones and Studio V Hair. Mt. Tabor Brewing, with a wood-fired menu, has a tentative open date of late August.
Felida Village also offers seven apartments and one three-bedroom unit that is for extended stay. Edwards, who bought the land in 2007, owns two additional acres that will be another mixed-use space and extra parking for the area.
“This is a growing area,” Bailey said. “People are excited that they’ll be able to stay in Felida and not have to go across town to get coffee. We’ve had several people come in and tell us they wanted to be able to walk and get coffee.”
From a market standpoint, Edwards is convinced the area can support a local coffee shop and the other tenants in Felida Village. Then again, Edwards, who lives six blocks from Felida Village, has believed this for nearly a decade.
“The area was ripe for this in 2007 when I purchased the property,” he said. “It’s one the reasons I bought it. Had I been able to afford building it then, I would have.”
Felida Coffee House, which will have its Grand Opening event August 26-28, is the fourth business to open in Felida Village, following Barre3, Edward Jones and Studio V Hair.
