Making friends as an adult is no easy feat. Without the social structure of school and with the many responsibilities of adulthood, it can be hard to form new bonds. If you don't drink alcohol or partake in the nightlife scene, it's often even more difficult.
For night owls, misfits and creatives alike, Spokane's Lunarium offers an alcohol-free social haven.
Lunarium started out in 2021 as an evening pop-up cafe inside Twenty-Seventh Heaven bakery's old South Hill location. Founded by co-owners and life partners Dorian Karahalios and Aimee Clark, the cafe outgrew the bakery and moved to its own space off North Monroe Street in May 2023.
Running the pop-up gave the couple time to gain their footing, especially considering it's their first venture in the food industry. It also let them gauge local interest in an evening space devoid of the typical nightlife debauchery.
"We felt really deeply that Spokane didn't have a nighttime place that wasn't a bar, and so we were trying to kind of feel out if there was interest for a space like that," Clark says.
Their pop-up was a hit. More surprising was that customers flocked to the menu's tea offerings rather than to coffee.
"We originally started as late night coffee pop-up, but we also had some teas, and the teas were way more popular," Karahalios says.
Toeing the line between cafe and bar, Lunarium aims for a lively social setting, hosting a growing lineup of monthly events like art nights and open mics.
Comfort was also at the forefront while designing the space. The shop is welcoming with soft pastels, highlighted by a playful mural by Spokane artist Tiffany Patterson on one wall, featuring all sorts of animals and creatures hanging out over cake and tea.
Just like Patterson's characters, a variety of patrons enjoy the space. Students huddle over laptops typing away, friends roar with laughter and a tarot reader dishes out fortunes to curious customers. All are sipping on tea while building community.
While its previous pop-up space was too small to host events, Lunarium is now a hub for those looking to meet and spend time with others of similar interests.
"Our main motivator for this project has always been community and community building, and so for me that means like art, creative people creating small groups and clubs, and things like that," Clark says. "Really sustaining activities where you can meet other people and maybe make friends as grown-ups because that's so hard."
Lunarium hosts regular events like a comic drawing meetup, a collage workshop and open collage night, open mics, a fiber arts night, a tarot divination meetup, a mahjong night, and an open art/paint night. Find the complete schedule of recurring and special events at lunariumspokane.com.
Clark and Karahalios have a few guidelines, such as keeping events PG-13, to ensure that Lunarium is a welcoming and safe space for everyone, regardless of age, background, gender or sexual orientation.
"I'm trying to keep everything appropriate, and I've had a lot of positive responses from that, especially from parents of queer kids. I can't tell you how validating that is to just have really happy moms come up and tell me that this is a safe place for their queer teens," Clark says.
The cafe also hosts one-off and seasonal events, like an upcoming Christmas cookie giveaway, letting customers stop by on Christmas Day to pick up free cookies.
"When we were a pop-up, my partner was gone for Christmas and I was just kind of scrolling though Facebook, and all I could see were people saying, 'I don't have any family. I'm new to town. I'm alone.' Or, in the LGBTQ context, 'My family won't see me,'" Clark says. "I wasn't doing anything so I made a whole bunch of cookies and just opened on Christmas Day for anyone to come over."
This year, Clark is planning to make over 600 cookies.
"If you don't have any family, or if you had too much of your family, you can come be a part of mine on Christmas Day," Clark says.
And if you want to cheer the New Year with a cup of tea, Lunarium is also holding a New Year's celebration with their Tea Journey to 2025 event ($25) on Dec. 31. Clark and Karahalios will guide attendees through all the strange teas they've collected over the year and reflect with tea journal writing prompts.
Karahalios and Clark curated Lunarium's menu to include over 30 tea varieties — not to mention the "secret" tea stash that's available upon mention.
You can share a larger pot of tea ($11-$13) or sip on your own personal-sized pot ($6-$7), including complimentary cream, oat milk and honey by request.
The menu may be daunting to those new to the tea scene, but in-depth descriptions of flavor profiles and Lunarium's knowledgeable staff can guide your experience. The menu has a helpful key at the bottom to indicate which teas are customer favorites, house blended, have health benefits or are great for re-steeps.
"Part of sharing tea is making it accessible to everyone, without it being pretentious or complicated," Clark says.
If you can't get enough tea and want to expand your home collection, Lunarium offers a monthly Tea Club subscription box.
For those that are loyal coffee drinkers, Lunarium also has French press coffee ($5.50-$10) from local Roast House Coffee and Vietnamese coffee ($5.50) from Nguyen Coffee Supply.
If you haven't eaten dinner yet or want a late-night snack, there's also toast ($7), sandwiches ($10-$15) and a jam flight ($10). To satisfy a sweet tooth, baked goods like scones ($7) and cookies by the pair ($5) are made in-house.
While attending one of Lunarium's recent open art nights, I saw firsthand how the cafe fosters a social and creative atmosphere where people of all walks of life come together.
Meghan Jones and fellow creative Tom Vert kickstarted the monthly event, which happens every third Wednesday.
"I had like a six-year dry spell when it came to making art, and I was so, so sick of it, and I just had to figure out how to start creating again," says Vert, touching on how Lunarium's art night has pushed him to return to his craft and also meet other creatives.
"If people can get together and talk, that's how shows happen, that's how collaborations happen, that's how art happens," Jones says.
During December's event, eight people spread out on a large table to work on their art projects while chatting, laughing and drinking tea — completely accepting of newcomers, beginners and different artistic mediums. Some sketched deep sea creatures, while others drew birds or their own family members, and another first-timer created an LED Christmas tree.
As a tea lover in search of new friends, I couldn't ask for more.
"We found that we are a tea and coffee place, but more than that, we're a place for community," co-owner Clark says. ♦
