A new cafe, Linger Coffee Co., is coming to downtown Lyons, set to on 431 Main St. in the space that held longtime cafe The Barking Dog. Linger, owned by husband-and-wife duo Armené and Tom Piper, is aiming to open in the beginning of May.
The pair moved to Lyons three years ago and recognized The Barking Dog as a local spot. Whenever the couple would go on walks, it seemed like all roads led back to The Barking Dog. “We just ended up at the cafe almost every morning,” Armené says. “It was a space where we got to know a lot of our community members.”
When The Barking Dog’s owner Greig Chesne announced he was closing up the cafe and retiring in June 2025, the Pipers jumped on the opportunity to buy the place. Armené comes from a coffee background, growing up working in her father’s coffee shops in Boulder. “I spent most of my childhood behind the counter. When I wasn’t at school, I was counting beans and making change for people,” she says.
She hasn’t worked in the coffee industry since her late 20s, instead starting an eclectic pair of businesses: an aesthetic laser studio and a motorcycle riding school. However, she jumped at the chance to open Linger. Armené was headed up the mountains for a girls trip when she heard about The Barking Dog’s closure. “I called my husband, and I told him, ‘You need to get down there right now. You need to tell him we are interested if he’s considering selling,'” she recalls, not even pausing to think about timelines or financials.
The pair were originally planning on a near-seamless transition of ownership, keeping the name and leaving the space largely the same. However, when they got the keys, they realized the existing cafe wasn’t going to work for them. “We needed to just change it from top to bottom,” Armené says. Hence, Linger was born.
While opening the cafe has been more involved than the Pipers expected, it has given them the opportunity to make some larger changes to the space, remodeling the interior and reconfiguring the layout of the coffee bar. Armené says the general aesthetic will have an Art Deco vibe, but the specifics are still under wraps. “I think it’s going to blow people’s minds,” she says.
While the Pipers are making sweeping changes, the cafe’s role in the community will remain intact. “The reason we chose the name Linger is because we do want people to hang out. We do want people to loiter and and have that community,” Armené says. The pair have also looped in various members of their community in building out the space, having them weigh in on the food and coffee they’ll serve (also a secret for now).
While opening the business has taken longer than they’ve expected, Armené says the community has been patient, despite their excitement. She says, “We’re filled with gratitude and excitement for this to open and to be sharing our love of coffee with the people that we love.”
