Family-Friendly Cafe, Middle of Downtown

Durango may have a lot of coffee shops, but does your go-to have a book nook complete with a fireplace and floor-to-ceiling shelves or as many funny mugs as you could possibly fit in your cabinet? How about an open space where kids can be kids, while their parents can enjoy a freshly-baked cinnamon roll or a muffin. Enter Stimulus Cafe. You're watching the local news network, brought to you by TBK bank and Closets Plus. I'm Wendy Graham Settle. The Main Mall in downtown Durango has seen its fair share of occupants over the past few years. One of the newest, Nicholas Random, is trying to reshape the way people of Durango view both the Main Mall and coffee shops.

So we are right here at the Main Mall, downtown, Durango. This is Stimulus Cafe and Coffee House, a brand new, family-friendly coffee shop that I've decided to open. I, you know, I wandered around along a lot downtown and not a lot of family-friendly coffee places to go to these days, which is really interesting. So I decided to open one myself, and yeah, the Main Mall, it's right in the center of town. It's a beautiful location, it's a great spot. It just needs a little pick-me-up, so I'm going to start it off and get some new businesses in here.

While Durango, and downtown in particular, has a lot of coffee shops, Random thought that many were missing parts that would make them kid friendly. After all, Durango does have some days where their weather is not conducive to outdoor activities. Stimulus Cafe was created with the idea that kids can be kids while inside, while providing adults with a space to have a cup of coffee or a tasty bite to eat.

You can come in here, you can hang out. There's lots of fun things. I always have fun music playing, I'm building a tiny library over there. I definitely want to do kids book readings. Borders and Barnes and Noble, we used to be very popular. I know that industry, with Amazon, has kind of gone out the window, but I had a lot of friends who worked there. I even did some book readings myself at a couple of those places, and it was always really, really fun and a great place for parents to bring in their kids and they could hang out and have some cookies, listen to a book that's being read. It's just, just more fun.

It's not just the library that offers reading materials. The choice of decoration for the cafe features walls covered in mugs with funny sayings and creative artwork. And they're not just for show.

So I always have interesting mugs. So I originally put all these up for fun decoration and then people started to try and buy them off of me. So I decided to start finding more and more and more of them. And now they're all for sale and I only sell funny, strange, weird, or interesting mugs or cookie jars or tea kettles and all sorts of fun things. So I try to sell funny or interesting ones and they're really cheap, so I have to change the walls all the time, which makes it fun for me.

Random wants people to know the Main Mall isn't just some old building downtown and that it's coming back through the efforts of his store and others who share the space. Stimulus Cafe is currently open seven days a week, and this summer, Random is planning on offering book readings and art events as activities for the family. To learn more about the Stimulus Cafe, stop by the store at 835 Main or call 970-422-8335. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I'm Wendy Graham Settle.

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