A new coffee stand is set to open next month in the lobby of downtown’s Bank of America Financial Center, at 601 W. Riverside.

Former stay-at-home mom Yelena Matsyplyuk says the stand is the first step toward fulfilling her dream of opening a downtown coffee shop.

“When our kids were in school, my sister and I used to visit a lot of local coffee shops, and we just really fell in love with the coffee culture downtown,” she says. “I’ve wanted to open my own stand here for a long time now.”

Matsypluk says her husband, Sergei, is a general contractor whose company Mayor Construction LLC is building the stand.

“We’ve started construction, and if everything goes well, we hope to be opening around the second week in June,” she says. 

Matsyplyuk, whose family immigrated to Spokane from Uzbekistan in 1998, says the name she chose for her new business, Begona, means visitor in the Uzbek language.

She says the stand will be small, occupying just 170 square feet of space, and will employ two people besides herself.

“We’re going to start small and see how things go,” she says. “I do still have future dreams of opening a sit-down style shop of my own.”

Matsypluk says the stand will serve coffee from Spokane-based Bumper Crop Coffee, as well as baked goods from Chaps Diner & Bakery and Common Crumb Artisan Bakery, both of Spokane.