Rock n’ Roll Renovation…
Peace Love & Rocky Roast Coffee House & Creamery is located just outside of Columbia South Carolina in the Town of Lexington. The end cap space in the mega box retail center is in a smaller building which is set closer to the street than the big box stores (Target & Best Buy) are with brick exterior and plenty of windows to boot. This is the perfect spot for the Woodstock concept coffee house to settle into. The previous tenant was a failed deli in a neighborhood with 2 other very good delis, and excellent BBQ I need to add, near by. The space, although very basic was set up well with plenty of power and plumbing infrastructure to enable us to keep 100% of the existing ware washing and BOH area untouched. The front of house interior had an open ceiling and existing bead board wainscot throughout so we did not need to re-invent the look for the late 60’s communal style café. Our goal in design had been to re-use and re-task everything if possible. Building materials, lighting HVAC, plumbing and electrical were all looked at carefully for its significance within the space. More than 90% of the interior finishes and fixtures were re-used for the new café space. Look at second generation spaces and see what you can use and re-use. Be resourceful and thoughtful of the environment when you create your dream café!
UPDATE: We worked tirelessly getting this design right; re-using all existing furniture fixtures and equipment; stainless steel counter tops, plumbing; keeping and adding to the appropriate finish materials and their existing locations; re-tasking the old sandwich deli design to work for Peace Love's Woodstock concept. The 'Big Box' landlord, short sighted as they tend to be, had killed the deal late in the process simply because the 'mermaid' had signed a deal 1/2 mile away on the same side of the street. When told this by the broker, our client Peace Love saw this as a challenge to not only keep their eyes on the prize, but knowing that once in place, Peace Love could render Starbucks impotent in this local market by providing hand crafted specialty coffee and locally roasted beans with high design concept.
Unfortunately, fear overcame the big box landlord, and Peace Love will be moving to another space in downtown Columbia, SC 'The Vista' less than 2 blocks from the only coffee house in the area...Starbucks. The tenants and neighbors are very excited to have a better option for coffee & espresso!
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