When Denise Champagne opened Coffeeweed Cottage café in Lafayette just two years ago, she took a bit of a chance on the neighborhood called Fightinville. Although the café has been successful, a personal financial situation is forcing Champagne to seek a buyer for the café and the property she helped restore.
“The business is successful. Nothing about it has been horrible or terrible in any way, shape or form,” Champange recently told What Now New Orleans. “We have a great clientele. Business people schedule meetings there. We have Bible studies there, and it’s a beautiful vibe.”
That vibe has been specifically curated. Named after a slang term for chicory, Coffeeweed Cottage is located in a 3,000-square-foot former mechanic shop in a neighborhood called both LaPlace and Fightinville. Champagne said the latter is an old nickname that comes from the area being a place where “different neighborhoods would come to fight” many years ago. Many people now prefer the name LaPlace, which refers to the neighborhood’s Creole history.
The neighborhood has seen an uptick in interest from developers in recent years, possibly spurred by the opening of Coffeeweed Cottage. Renovations to create the café included new electrical work, air conditioning, painting, insulation, large glass garage doors, and a lunch counter. While the café has been focused on serving the surrounding neighborhood, the eclectic vibe of Coffeweed Cottage also makes it a destination.
“I picked that neighborhood specifically because it is a great location,” Champange said. “It’s a mile off Interstate 90, right on the outskirts of downtown, and it’s easy to get to.”
“We do have some great regulars who walk to our coffee shop, which was really the goal for me,” she added. “We want people to bike and walk there.”
Coffeeweed Cottage has also become part of the surrounding business community, sourcing as much as possible from local producers. The coffee beans come from Orleans Coffee, gluten-free cheesecakes come from Lafayette-based D.E.M. Cheesecakes, and other sweets come from Guidry’s Cakes, which is based in Erath.
Champagne said connecting with the community has been highly rewarding. However, the loss of her second job is forcing her to sell the business she so lovingly created. She hopes the new owners will continue to see the potential in Coffeeweed Cottage and its surrounding Fightinville/LaPlace neighborhood.
“At this point, I feel like it’s time for me to sell and for someone else to come, invest in it, and make it what it should be,” she said. “Because there’s so many great things about the business that I haven’t even tapped into yet.”
