Owners’ travels fuel vibe at North Las Vegas coffee shop

TIABI Coffee & Waffle, which recently moved to North Las Vegas, isn’t the region’s typical coffee shop. And that’s by design.

Longtime friends Tiffany Stiles and Mae Pineda visited far-flung places such as Seattle, Italy, Hong Kong and Japan. As tourists from 2004 to 2009, they noticed a distinctive coffee shop culture.

“It was a common thing to have food with coffee,” said co-owner Stiles.

At TIABI, customers’ food and drinks are served in restaurant fashion.

Three years ago, the pair opened their first location close to the heart of Las Vegas at 3961 S. Maryland Parkway, near East Flamingo Road. They then wanted to expand and reach “a broader market, a different demographic,” Stiles said.

Their North Las Vegas location, at 6320 Simmons St., Suite 135, opened March 8.

“The coffee market here (in North Las Vegas) is unsaturated,” Stiles said. “Most of the independent coffee shops are south or southwest.”

As the coffee market evolves, these small-business owners wanted their own sip from the cup. Stiles said she noticed that most coffee outlets in North Las Vegas were part of a chain.

The recession hit North Las Vegas hard, said Cara Clarke, associate vice president of communications for the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce.

“Starting a small business is tough, even during the best of the economy,” she said. “The city was put in financial jeopardy for a while. I think the recession contributed to this.”

TIABI stands for “To Inspire And Be Inspired,” the company’s mission statement.

“When you support small-business owners, you’re paying for someone’s livelihood: the everyday man,” Stiles said.

The serene environment is just what 29-year-old Liv Dooley said she seeks out when visiting a coffee shop.

“I love TIABI’s intimate atmosphere, creative selections and customer service,” the North Las Vegas resident said as she drank a kale champ TIABI smoothie. “I always feel at home when I step foot into TIABI. I schedule as many meetings there as I possibly can.”

The coffee shop offers espressos, tea fusions, lattes, vegan smoothies, toasted sandwiches, waffles, cookies and vegan and gluten-free options. The chain’s best-selling coffees are the pistachio latte, Tiff’s waffle macchiato and coconut truffle iced coffee, Stiles said.

“They have a twist on food and a new way of having breakfast items, different options,” Las Vegas resident Tra Andra’ Mitchell, 23, said. “I had one waffle and that was it. The red velvet waffle is one of my favorites, but strawberry kisses is my number one.”

The people are nice and the food is good, Mitchell added.

“We pull a lot of our dishes from people we talk to, our customers and different cultures,” Stiles said.

Contact Raven Jackson at rjackson@viewnews.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @ravenmjackson on Twitter.