Nirvana Coffee Co. is back open in downtown Aberdeen, and the shop’s new owner, Amy Mathews Smith, hopes to provide a warm, welcoming feeling to her customers.

Mathews Smith, who used to own the McCleary-based Salon Envy, knows how to interact with people, and how to make them feel good. Combining that with coffee, a favorite product of Washington state, seems to be a natural fit. The shop is located where it was before, 205 S. I St., in Aberdeen.

“I feel like I have the passion of having a really good vibe in my own space, if that even makes sense, of having a really positive environment” Mathews Smith said. “This is kind of one of those spaces where you can be really friendly while you’re doing a service at the same time along the same lines as a hairdresser. … I love to talk to people.”

The soft opening for the shop was on Thursday. The Daily World was there on Friday to speak to Mathews Smith about why she decided to take on the coffee shop.

As has been the reason for new plans for people outside of Mathews Smith, COVID caused mayhem

“I closed my business (during) COVID,” Mathews Smith said. “My kids were out of school. And then of course, the governor shut it all down, so I ended up closing my hair salon.”

Mathews Smith explained the shop’s already existent Nirvana theme was a draw for her, and how the D&R Theatre next door, gives Nirvana Coffee Co. another way in which she can get more business. The theater, which hasn’t had an event in some time, is supposed to start hosting events in the near future.

And then, there are Mathews Smith’s ideas to expand business within the shop.

“(The shop) has the potential of being more than just a coffee shop during the day,” Mathews Smith said. “I’d like to ‘Paint at Night,’ where I can open (the shop) at night and do paint parties. And, have some music in here. Have some musicians come in and play in the evening or even during the day. (It’s) something to do more in town than just only go to the bar in the evening. Maybe somebody can bring their kids into a paint party instead of it only being a ‘Paint and Sip’ type deal.”

One appeal of going forward with Nirvana Coffee for Mathews Smith, was how it didn’t need much in order to open. She decided on the shop in August, and then signed her lease at the end of September.

“And then I got in here and got it all ready to go,” Mathews Smith said. “I did the inventory and figured out what I needed to get going.”

Mathews Smith said she was pushing to get proper permitting done for the shop. Most of that was with the Grays Harbor County Health Department, but Mathews Smith has zero complaints about that process.

“The health department was really fast, and really great to work with actually,” Mathews Smith said. “I was pretty impressed with that.”

Mathews Smith said the department told her the process would take about six weeks, and so she was ready to wait.

“I was thinking, ‘OK, I’ll just wait on that,’” Mathews Smith said. “But they actually were out here in a couple weeks.”

Another appeal for Mathews Smith is to improve downtown Aberdeen.

“I feel like the downtown can really be coming up if people are opening businesses and coming into town, then we have more stuff to do,” Mathews Smith said. “And it all just starts with starting to do it.”

Centering a business around coffee, in Washington state, is a smart idea too, according to Mathews Smith. A coffee fan herself, she enjoys the White Chocolate Caramel and Coconut Breve at Nirvana Coffee. The coffee shop also sells food that pairs well with coffee, and espresso drinks.

“People drink coffee” Mathews Smith said. “That’s the draw. Profit margin-wise, you know, of course, when you’re looking at a business you’re looking at something that sells well. We know in Washington, coffee sells. And then of course the Nirvana name. People are coming into town wanting to have something to do. And they want to tour anything that has anything to do with (Nirvana).”

Mathews Smith, who graduated from Elma High School in 1992, said the “Grunge” era, which started with Grays Harbor County’s own Kurt Cobain, is her era, for sure. She’s also a fan of the band Nirvana. That’s good, since the name of the shop, as well as most of the interior decorating inside the shop, has to do with Cobain — the left-handed guitar playing, and lead singing front man who started Nirvana.

On the north side wall of the shop hang photos of Nirvana that were taken by rock photographer Darrell Westmoreland.

Mathews Smith’s family and friends are excited for her, too.

“Pretty much everyone said, ‘that’s a perfect fit for me,’” Mathews Smith said. “I have the personality. It’s just a good fit for me. They were excited.”

While Mathews Smith has family members that are excited about the Nirvana aspect, most of her relatives are excited to see her bringing in some business and having a space of her own.

Monica Reeves was in the shop on Friday to see Mathews Smith, as well as to get herself an Iced Americano. Reeves is happy for her friend.

“This is so exciting,” Reeves said. “This is something she’s completely made for. She’s spent so much of her career taking care of people, whether it’s through hair, or making people feel pretty, and now she gets to get them all jazzed up on coffee.”