For a decade, Mangrove Cafe & Bakery provided a cozy spot to grab scratch-made baked goods, a cup of coffee or a plate of authentic Thai food. The cafe’s owners, Jerry and Ratree Shadduck, converted an old home tucked off Sprague Avenue in Spokane Valley into a dining space, replacing the front and back lawns with gardens. Regulars were saddened when Mangrove shuttered this past October, but Bluebird’s Cottage cafe took its place on Jan. 2.
Working in the coffee industry since 2012, Bluebird’s owner James Horn has finally achieved his longtime dream of owning his own coffee shop. Horn was born in Santa Cruz, California, and moved with his family to Spokane Valley when he was 8. Aside from short stints in Colorado and Seattle, the Spokane area has been his home ever since.
Bluebird nods to his birth city, using beans from Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co., which has been in operation for over four decades…