Fun new coffee shop

Louisville never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think the city is running out of new places to go, someone shows me another gem! Such was the case last week when a friend suggested we go to a coffee house called Ray's Monkey House to study. Ray's is a coffee house like none I've ever seen. Instead of coffee colored walls, each room is painted in vivid colors (the girls bathroom is hot pink. and when I say "hot pink", I mean HOT pink!) The coffee house is designed with KIDS in mind. A COFFEE shop for KIDS? Well, maybe it's more for parents than it is for kids, but the coffee shop has a miniature kitchen playset, a table with a racetrack for hot wheels cars, a variety of board games (chinese checkers, scrabble, ants in the pants, to name a few), and childrens books are strewn throughout. They even have a kids open mic night every Friday night for children to tell stories, sing songs, play instruments, etc, story hour twice a week, and they bring in kid-friendly entertainment on occasion.

Here are a few pictures from their blog... You can kind of see the kitchen play set in the back corner.
Here's a picture of the upstairs during one of the story time events. The car track is in the back right hand corner where one of the children is busy at work racing cars!

In addition to the kid-friendly environment, Ray's is also deeply concerned with social justice, fair trade and organic living. They also roast their own coffee beans right in the coffee shop. And if you order tea it comes out in its own little pot on a fun wooden tray. Come visit Louisville, and we'll be sure to stop by Ray's! :)