The family behind Bainbridge Play Cafe

On opening morning this May, Amanda stood in the middle of the cafe and watched the first families settle in: coffee moving at the counter, kids and their grown-ups heading into the play space together. The idea was two years old; the build itself took four months, and construction had wrapped two weeks before she felt ready. She picked a Saturday, opened the doors, and let the island in. "To finally see it come to life," she says, "was pretty crazy."

The cafe grew out of Amanda's first years as a mom in Santa Cruz, where she learned the hard way how much a village matters. When her family moved to Bainbridge, she promised herself she would build one: she hung flyers around the island and started Tots on the Trail, a free toddler hiking group that met every Tuesday at 9 on a different trail. People drove an hour to walk with other adults. The walks kept ending the same way, with everyone wanting to keep talking and no nearby coffee shop built for a crowd of toddlers. Her gears started turning.

The storefront behind The Plate & Pint used to be a barre studio, then sat vacant for a year before Amanda gutted it, trenched the floor for the coffee bar's plumbing, and brought in Harmony House, the island interior design studio, to shape the space, including the big interior window between the coffee line and the play floor. Next door is Bainbridge Kids Dentistry, and that neighbor sealed the choice: kids arrive in their dentist shirts, and Seattle families who ferry over twice a year for appointments now make a morning of it.

You might not spot Adam behind the counter on a regular basis, but he works hard behind the scenes keeping the cafe's financials in order, and he is looking forward to hosting more Dadurday events for dads, plus dad bike rides from the cafe.

And you don't need a little one with you to visit. The cafe is open to everyone in the community, with hot breakfast sandwiches and bagels, grab-and-go lunch from Wild Roots Culinary Healing (a woman-owned business on the island), and, because Lily has so many allergies, Amanda makes a point of offering vegan and gluten-free snacks.