Morning Beverage Routines

I recently traveled to North Carolina to visit my sister, and she took me to Lucky Tree Coffeehouse & Art Gallery, her favorite coffee shop. Walking into the shop, I knew right away why she loves it. The space is filled with eclectic, creative objects. Everywhere I turned, my eyes landed on something different, and remarkably, the randomness felt organized and curated. An extensive selection of candles, soaps, and jewelry greeted us, and the walls were adorned with all sorts of paintings, photographs, and three-dimensional art. I was immediately smitten.

Lucky Tree is located in the “Method” District, also referred to as West Raleigh, just inside the beltline near downtown Raleigh. Across the street from Meredith College and just a mile from North Carolina State University, Lucky Tree is the perfect stop for neighborhood residents, students and faculty making their way to class, and commuters heading in and out of Raleigh.

Owners and twin sisters Ashley and Amanda joined us, and the four of us chatted while sitting at the 20-foot table made from wooden planks from a friend’s old deck. As I sipped dark roast and my sister enjoyed a wild berry, hibiscus iced tea, my first question was about their own beverage routines. Amanda’s drink of choice is a “hot, honey, almond-milk latte with coconut oil. I usually take two hours to drink my coffee. Sometimes I leave it around and people might think I’m done, but I’m definitely not!” Ashley’s morning routine often includes “a regular cup of coffee—might be dark or light roast—but usually black with a little sugar. In the afternoon, a cold brew with vanilla and cream. I drink it so fast! It is so good! Sometimes I wonder, where did it go?!”

When I asked what a typical day is like, Amanda and Ashley described caring for their children, homeschooling, and managing the shop and they said that their routine has actually never been very routine. They enjoy the variety and the unpredictability. On any given day, they might be planning for a festival, meeting with vendors and customers, working on projects, developing communication strategies, or setting up new art installations. Baking, especially making muffins, is a favorite part of Ashley’s day.

Amanda explained, “I love that we get to work with so many local makers and producers in the area. We have probably 50 local artisans of all different kinds that we work with. Just this morning we were picking up our milk from the NCSU dairy farm. Definitely keeping it ‘close to home’ makes it fun for us.” Ashley added, “I love that we are really community centered. We get to work with family, and we get to work with each other, which is a beautiful aspect of it. And our team is either family or like family. And then our customers too—it is a beautiful thing to see some of our customers every day. The social aspect, seeing people meeting friends for coffee—we get to be a part of that.”

Lucky Tree’s evening events provide another forum for gathering. Ashley’s and Amanda’s faces lit up when they talked about the semi-monthly music nights they host featuring local musicians. “Watching the artists who don’t know each other start collaborating and actually building from there, coming back and performing together—it’s been cool to watch. It’s like magic,” Ashley said.

Some customers have been coming in to Lucky Tree since it first opened and have witnessed the changes over the years. Ashley’s and Amanda’s goal was to create a living, breathing, and evolving space. Amanda said, “We’ve done a lot of the work ourselves, and we’ve been part of the evolving nature of this space. We’ve boot-strapped this from the beginning. It’s kind of cool that we can look around and know that each piece has its story and for us to know how everything ended up here together.”

When I asked Ashley and Amanda what they keep, they looked at each other and quickly responded with “random little things.” They described their “broken glass box” that they filled with things they had broken, and eventually those “random little things” were used to create the shop’s marvelous counter.

Ashley and Amanda want Lucky Tree to be a place that inspires and uplifts. They remarked that they might be the first person a customer sees in the morning. Amanda and Ashley want to start their customers’ days “with an ‘I can’ inspiration about themselves, their day, their work, and their art.”

Tell us about your favorite coffee shop. We’d love to hear.