Bluebird’s Cottage, a cafe offering a build-your-own bouquet bar, has opened in a converted home at 18 N. Bowdish, in Spokane Valley. 

Bluebird’s Cottage is the manifested dream of James Horn, who has more than a decade of experience in the coffee service industry. 

“I've always wanted to do this, I was always just too scared,” he says. 

With a friend’s encouragement, he decided last year to take the leap. Horn was originally planning to open a cafe this spring and had his eye on a location next to a plant nursery. 

“I drove by this place at the beginning of November, I saw the for lease sign and the owners were sitting out front,” Horn recalls. 

He pulled into the parking lot, took a tour, and “immediately got the warm and fuzzies,” he says.

The building, built in 1939, had been converted from a home to a restaurant by the owners, a married couple who operated Thai restaurant Mangrove Cafe & Bakery in the space for a decade before retiring. 

Because the space was already set up as a restaurant, Horn says he didn’t have to make any changes beyond painting. 

Business has been brisk at Bluebird’s Cottage since it opened Jan. 2. Horn says he’s added as much seating in the 1,000-square-foot cottage as possible, but the cafe still runs out of space for customers. The small parking lot has also posed a challenge, Horn adds. 

To help mitigate limited indoor seating, when the weather warms, the cafe will offer additional seating in the English cottage-style garden at the property.

In addition to coffee drinks, Bluebird’s Cafe offers tea, matcha lattes, Red Bull Italian sodas, chai lattes, as well as smoothies. The food menu includes breakfast wraps and build-your-own breakfast sandwiches, overnight oats, avocado toast, muffins, and bagels. Horn partners with Spokane-based Sweet Dreams Bakery for sweets such as lemon bars and cookies; he says all baked goods at Bluebird’s Cottage will eventually be from Sweet Dreams as the bakery’s owner expands its menu.

Bluebird’s Cottage operates 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Horn says that as the days lengthen and summer approaches, the cafe will likely extend hours into the evening.

Currently, the cafe has one employee; Horn says he hopes to hire a second barista in a few months.

To stand out from similar establishments in the area, Horn says that the same friend who encouraged him to open the cafe also introduced the idea of selling flowers. Instead of selling premade bouquets, however, Horn decided that he would offer a build-your-own bouquet bar, from which customers can select as many different flowers as they choose.

“I thought, I like picking out flowers to make my own bouquet, I'm sure other people would like to do that and not just be stuck with the same bouquets over and over,” he says. 

Some people visit Bluebird’s Cafe specifically for the bouquet bar, he contends.

“I didn't think it was going to be as big of a draw as it is,” Horn says.

To keep the venue fresh, Horn says the cafe will celebrate a different theme each month. In March, for example, the menu will offer specials with a Disneyland theme. 

Bluebird’s Cottage also will offer events, such as cookie decorating classes and a paint and sip-style vase painting class. Horn also is considering hosting outdoor evening movies in the summer, as well as holding an adoption event focused on animals that have a harder time finding homes due to disabilities or other factors.

In addition to two dogs, Horn owns a bird of his own, a green-cheeked conure, named Bluey. However, Horn says the name of the cafe is unrelated to his pet.

“I don't really know how I came up with ‘Bluebird,’” Horn says. “This place … has that cottage vibe, so I just put them together.”