WAUKEE, IOWA — Construction is starting for a new cafe in Waukee, but a not typical one.
It’s a cafe and playground all-in-one, where kids can be kids and parents can connect with other parents in the community.
“We’re designing every component of this space to be safe for children. Parents can watch their children and are visible to them within arm’s reach,” said new business owner Natalie Goodall.
Natalie and her husband Shane came up with the idea back in February.
They are parents to two young children, and they both know the struggles of parenthood.
“One thing that we have in common with most people I think is starting our day out with coffee and our day out with our drink. And really, that’s the one part of my day that’s predictable every morning,” Goodall said. “I don’t know when my kids are going to wake up. I don’t know if they’re going to have a good night or a bad night or if they’re going to have a rough morning. But every morning I can count on having my cup of coffee.”
They decided to combine both and turn into PlayGrounds Cafe for Littles.
“We’re excited to bring people along on the journey. We want people to see the building process and how we’re really designing this place very, very thoughtfully, very purposeful, fully for families,” said Goodall.
They are in the early process of development. There are similar places like this in bigger cities across the country.
The Goodalls decided to bring it to Waukee this year.
“We do want to be a playful place. We want to be a place that’s fine and that’s engaging for kids,” she said. “But we also want to help parents be grounded and be grounded in the fact that they they have a place that can be taken care of because at home they’re just taking care of their kids.”
They have made it official on Facebook. The post has received a lot of shares and comments from the community and surrounding communities.
“There’s such a need and we’ve even had a lot of people reach out to us and say I wanted to do this. I wanted to bring this to our community, but I couldn’t I’m so glad you are,” Goodall said. “We are we’re so thrilled to that we could be the ones to bring this here.”
They plan on opening the cafe later this fall.
You can follow along on their updates by going to their Facebook page.
