Countless Spokanites have fond memories and family photos that can be traced back to Green Gables Photography’s white, historic-style building at 727 W. Francis Ave. While the studio closed in 2021, the space has a new lease on life with Grounded Gardens, a plant cafe that opened on July 21.
After the studio shuttered during the pandemic, husband-and-wife duo Shawn and Aubrey White leased the building with plans to turn it into a coffee shop at the beginning of 2025. But when that project fell through, Matt Oliver saw it as the perfect opportunity to debut his plant-coffee shop concept.
“I’m new to coffee, so I thought the coffee would be a good mix with the plants,” Oliver says. “I’ve been growing plants for a long time.”…