Local mother transforms former auto repair shop into whimsical coffee spot

When Angela Risk moved with her husband and children to Okemos four years ago, she was surprised by the lack of “third places” — spaces outside of home or work to meet up with people.

“There were a lot of chill vibes, like, things that are called ‘third places’ in Seattle,” she said. “And I just noticed that, especially over here in Okemos, we don’t have many spaces where you can just go, chill and relax, have a cup of coffee or tea.”

At the same time, Risk was feeling adrift in her career. She had become a stay-at-home mother shortly after finishing her master’s degree, and was feeling a crisis of identity.

“I was like, ‘I have got to build something that’s mine,’” she said. “I didn’t have a career, I had kids kind of early — I’m ready to have my thing.”

The coffee shop that opened Friday, March 20 is definitely Risk’s own thing. Beside the coffee bar serving local 517 Coffee Co. beans and other drinks, like refreshers, it is a “shrine” to Risk’s girlhood, complete with Barbie and She-Ra figures. A “crazy board” maps out her life journey with red string. An event space in the back features a 330-pound disco ball that Risk purchased from the MSU Surplus Store, and a small retail section in the back features art from local artists as well as hippie-shop staples like gems and sage. Even the bathroom doors are painted with whimsical, Lisa Frank-esque art.

It’s a staggering transformation for the building, a former auto repair shop. The disco ball-ed event space once looked “very death-trappy,” Risk said. Renovating the space was a yearslong process, but Risk said transforming the unused space was important to her.

“We already have enough buildings in the world where, if we have just a little imagination, we can make something really beautiful on the inside,” Risk said.

She said a space like this allowed her to be more creative with her vision as she remodeled the shop, a process she documented on social media like Instagram, where she has about 70,000 followers under the name “ADHD Angela.”

If the shop’s atmosphere feels a little all over the place, Risk knows. That’s the point, she said.

“I would never have done anything like this five years ago,” she said. “I would have been like, ‘it has to be perfect, there has to be more of a brand, everything has to match,’ but as I’m getting older and I see my children aging, I wanted to prove that you can have kind of a sporadic brain and still be successful.”