This new cafe and bakery in downtown Puyallup has a kids’ play area and chunky cookies
Nichole Thacker started baking custom cookies in 2020 when her son was born and the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
She was looking for creative outlets, she said.
About a year in, Thacker realized she needed to expand after she had to start turning away clients and referring them to other bakers.
The 32-year-old started as a self-taught hobby baker. Now, she’s about to open a coffee shop and bakery in downtown Puyallup: Holiday Cafe.
Thacker hopes to have the grand opening of the cafe at 103 W. Pioneer Ave. in November. The space used to be storage for a pawn shop, she said
She’ll post updates on the cafe’s social media accounts when an opening date is set.
The cafe’s hours will be 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Sunday. It’ll be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
There will be a dozen cookies on the menu, including gluten free and vegan options, which will be baked on site.
“They’re chunky cookies,” she said. “The ones that are a little bit bigger and thicker, and, when you break them open, there’s something in the middle.”
Her favorite, and her husband’s, is one that’s like a Biscoff cookie, but it has white chocolate and cookie butter (a sweet, creamy spread that tastes like Biscoff cookies) in the middle.
There also will be a standard espresso menu, acai bowls, waffles and a kids menu.
Play area for kids 6 and under
Thacker designed the business to be kid friendly. She has a 4-year-old son and a 5-month-old daughter.
She started construction three days after her daughter was born.
The kids menu offers a waffle, toast and jam or chicken nuggets. Kids also will get to pick three sides, including oranges, apples, blueberries, bananas, strawberries, vanilla yogurt, crackers, applesauce, cheese, almonds, pickles, and veggies and hummus.
Kids’ food will be served on silicone plates that won’t slide around on the table. It will come cut into toddler-friendly pieces, to save parents that step.
The cafe also has a play area (socks required) for kids 6 and under.
Online reservations for 90-minute slots, $4 per kid, will make sure the play area is never over capacity, Thacker said, though they’ll take walk-ins when there’s space available.
The play area has mini slides, a pulley that moves toys up and down, a hidden area underneath to crawl through, a chalkboard to write on, and some steering wheels.
Her son loves it, she said, so much so that they named it for him. It’s called: “Kingston’s Playground.”
“He doesn’t want to leave, and we’re here all day,” she said.
Kingston couldn’t wait while they were building it. They had to build the slide first, so that he could play while they assembled the rest of it.
Asked about the proximity to other downtown coffee shops and to the playground at Pioneer Park, Thacker said she wanted a safe space for littles, in particular, to play.
“If you have toddlers that are 6 or under, whenever you’re going to a big playground, they usually kind of get trampled on, or pushed around, or they move a little bit slower than the elementary-school children,” she said.
Plus, she pointed out, her indoor play area will be protected from the weather.
It’s a “more intimate setting,” she said, where “moms can be sitting with them as they play.”
The business will close in the afternoons so that it can rent out the space for birthday parties (limited to 10 kids). Birthday packages start at $899.
Thacker also wants to host bridal showers and other events at the cafe, as well as different classes.
The space can accommodate up to 36 visitors.
‘We are the village.’
Thacker wants her cafe to feel like a cozy living room, she said, where visitors can “find their village and be in community with those around them.”
She said she’s always wanted to own a coffee shop. She thinks that dream started when she was a kid. Her Bible study group met before school at a Starbucks near Ballou Junior High School.
“I just loved that we could be in a coffee shop and just talk life,” she said.
Her parents are in the military, and she was born on Joint Base Lewis-McChord. They moved to the Puyallup area in 2005.
She left to play basketball at Simpson University in Redding, California, where she studied business and communications. Then she and her husband moved back to the Puyallup area, where they’re raising their family.
The slogan of the new business is: “We are the village.”
It’s a personal mission for Thacker.
“When I was walking through the IVF (In vitro fertilization) journey, my personal village surrounded me,” she said.
Now she wants to help others celebrate something every day, not just on holidays.
“Our mission is different than a typical coffee shop,” she said.
The name Holiday Cafe is meant to be a reminder to celebrate daily. It’s a space to gather for big life events, but also small victories, she said.
“We’re going to really challenge people to be grateful for what they have, and even the smallest milestones need to be celebrated,” Thacker said.
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
