Downtown Raleigh will soon add the coziest new coffee shop
In the shadow of a new Raleigh high-rise apartment building, the coziest downtown coffee shop is in the works.
Little Native, from the owners of the Durham coffee shop Cloche, will open in in a 93-year-old building at 426 S. Person Street in downtown Raleigh. The new shop will be a tidy 400 square feet with room for a patio on the side, at the corner of Cabarrus and Person.
Little Native is expected to open fully in January.
Following the launch of a coffee food truck, owners Ashleigh Davis and Cory Strickland opened Cloche in Durham in 2019, across the street from Duke’s East Campus. The shop is filled with plants and sunlight and often populated by students and laptops.
Davis said Little Native aims to be its own kind of shop, not necessarily a Raleigh version of Cloche. She said they weren’t necessarily looking to open a second coffee shop, but once they came upon the simple and ancient building they jumped all in.
“We fell in love with this space first,” Davis said. “The reason we love coffee shops is they make you feel certain ways in certain places....We stumbled upon this space and it was just meant to be a coffee shop.”
The threads of Little Natives were coming together before the COVID-19 Pandemic, Davis said, but are only now getting to the final stretch. In that time, the surrounding skyline on Person Street has changed dramatically, which a number of new apartment buildings sprouting up, including a seven story high-rise next door.
Davis said that the historic nature that first drew her to the Little Native building stands out even more against the backdrop of a quickly growing city.
“Now the size is really put into perspective, it’s a juxtaposition you can’t ignore,” Davis said. “These four walls will be here, they mean something. This building will never be torn down....In this area where development is growing and the city is changing at rapid speed, it’s a nod and reminder to slow down and think about what once was.”
Like its sister shop Cloche, the new Little Native will serve beans from Raleigh roaster Larry’s Coffee, but will also rotate in other small specialty roasters, Davis said, particularly those from BIPOC owners.
For Cloche, the proximity to Duke makes it attractive and convenient for students, but Davis said the shop has cultivated a larger community, including doctors and nurses on their way to start a shift, and groups of mothers meeting for coffee.
She said she’s looking forward to seeing what kind of community crops up around Little Native.
“The wonderful thing about coffee shops is the community decides what they want you to be,” Davis said. “It’s the group that’s around you that decides what they need your space for.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2023 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Downtown Raleigh will soon add the coziest new coffee shop."
