While downtown Centralia is known for the many antique stores that line Tower Avenue, customers have to visit a separate shop in the downtown area for a warm cup of coffee — and though most of these stores also sell furniture, customers are not allowed to lounge on it.
However, at the newly opened Dandy Doxie Vintage and Coffee, customers can not only sit back and relax on furniture inside the store, but they can also get their coffee fix.
The store was the brainchild of Centralia resident Nikki Pitcher, who now runs it together with her two sons, Brian Pitcher, who helps manage, and Sam Pitcher, the shop’s barista.
They met with The Chronicle on Thursday, Nov. 13, to talk about what sets Dandy Doxie apart.
They have a grand opening ceremony scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the new vintage store, located at 214 N. Tower Ave. Their grand opening will feature giveaways, treats and more.
The store’s name is inspired by the two dachshund dogs, named Penny and Loki, the Pitchers currently own.
“Loki, he actually can’t come into the store because he broke his back. He had the IVDD (intervertebral disc disease) surgery. He’s OK now. But he doesn’t move too fast, so I don’t want him under foot where he can get hurt,” Nikki said.
Amid the plethora of antique stores, Nikki decided it was a better idea to focus instead on stocking the store with vintage items.
Generally, antiques are items at least 100 years old, while vintage is anything between 20 and 99 years old.
At Dandy Doxie, customers can find everything from vintage clothing, records and more going back to the 1950s.
“We call it nostalgia, so it’s things you had when you were growing up,” Nikki said. “We get a lot of people who come in here and they’re like, ‘Oh I remember that when I was a kid,’ or ‘My grandma had this and my mom had this.’ So we call it vintage.”
Their records have been their biggest sellers so far, and Brian, an avid record collector himself, stated he hopes to grow the record selection.
As for the idea to have a store mixed with a coffee shop, Nikki stated she saw the idea in action already when she moved away from the region for a while.
“We lived in Texas for a couple years. We just went out there in search of sunshine. We didn’t like it though, so we came back home. It was too hot. But in Texas, they have a lot of these hybrid antique-coffee stores there. But I had never seen a lot on the West Coast,” Nikki said.
With nobody else in the area running a store like that, she decided to fill the void. Her goal is to use sales from the coffee shop to help support the vintage store.
Previously, Nikki was a self-described “corporate stooge” working as a program coordinator for Amazon.
“I didn’t want to do that anymore. I’ve always wanted to do this. Now that Brian and Sam are old enough to do it — Sam’s been a barista for five years, he’s got Starbucks and small coffee shop experience — so I thought, let’s just do it,” Nikki said.
The business is entirely family run as well, as while Nikki’s husband, a U.S. Navy veteran who still works full time as a forklift mechanic, doesn’t work inside the store itself, he helped remodel the space where Dandy Doxie is located.
“He’s really handy. He built both of our countertops using (recycled) doors, and he did the door wall here, too,” Nikki said.
As for the coffee shop side of Dandy Doxie, Sam welcomed the opportunity to work in a small-business coffee shop once again.
“Starbucks is the fast-food of the coffee industry. It’s not exactly like you get to stop and chat with people. When you’re in a coffee house, you actually get to interact with people and build those relationships,” Sam said.
Dandy Doxie sources its coffee from Caffé D’arte Coffee Roasters in Seattle. Nikki added she is working on also stocking pastries from the nearby Cinn-A-Girls Bakery.
Dandy Doxie Vintage and Coffee is open Wednesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., though hours and days of operation may change in the future.
For more information, follow Dandy Doxie on Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/4npm3xxk or call the business at 360-807-4253.
