For the past two decades working in the hospitality industry, Nikki Velazquez has grown to appreciate the hospitality culture and the importance of creating third spaces. Especially in the wake of COVID-19, she sees a need for third spaces more than ever, and now, she is stepping up to build her own for the Charlotte community. She plans to open all-day coffee and cocktail bar Plot Twist at 1518 Lyon Ct in Plaza Midwood early next year. Currently, the team is in the buildout phase and they are hoping to open in late February or early March.
“The cool thing about the hospitality industry is anybody can enter it. It doesn’t matter your education, it doesn’t matter your financial background. Everybody can come and play. You just have to want to enter,” Velazquez told What Now Charlotte. “So it’s like this fun little melting pot, and we just deal with the general public all day. When I wanted to think of my first space, I really wanted to recreate the reason that I fell in love with the industry. Having had that amazing culture so young made me learn about what a third space was like.”
Velazquez worked with local brands Charlotte Beer Garden and Tipsy Pickle before embarking on her own project with Plot Twist. She is working with her fiancé and finance professional Eric Flanigan, who will serve as the CFO for Plot Twist.
The 1,627-square-foot bar is taking shape in a former auto garage, allowing for both industrial touches as well as the addition of feminine, warm design touches. The space will seat about 50 people indoors and it has a 30-seat outdoor dog-friendly patio.
“There’s this gorgeous open space that has this really cool, masculine, industrial vibe, and to be able to put a warm, feminine spin on it but not take away from the masculine [is great],” Velazquez said. “One of the first questions they asked was like, ‘Do you want to rip it down?’ And I was like, ‘No, this makes me feel like it’s 2015 and I’m going to my friend’s house, and their garage has been outfitted for us to just come and hang out.’ This is exactly what I want.”
The team is working with Blaire Chastaine of Chastaine & Company on the design and Amber Cagle of Black Dove Design for architecture.
The beverage menu will provide coffee, cocktails, mocktails and THC options throughout the day. Expect to see house-made syrups and seasonal flavors, as well as small aperitifs like nuts and chips. Velazquez emphasizes that they are building a flexible beverage program to cater to a variety of people. For example, coffee will be available throughout the evening rather than remaining solely a daytime beverage, and there will be plenty of nonalcoholic options.
“it really just stinks when you go out and that one person has to have a glass of juice or just a soda water, and their experience is just dimmed just slightly, or they just really want a coffee, but the coffee is from eight hours ago because their coffee program stops at two o’clock, and the only person that can make a cappuccino leaves at two,” Velazquez said. “Whatever it is, [we want to make sure] that the experience for that person isn’t any different, and you can choose your own adventure without having to take away from the experience that the person next to you is having.”
