It would be exciting enough to learn that the Eraserhood (a.k.a. Callowhill) finally has more than one independent coffee shop. But at the new
Vice Coffee, Tattoos & Books, which quietly opened its doors at 1031 Spring Garden Street on February 7, customers can order up a permanent piece of body art with their half-caff quad-shot soy latte.
According to Vice co-owner Charlie Collazo, who also operates a nearby craft-beer pub called
The Institute Bar, it was the decade he spent as a Home Depot manager that inspired the shop.
"Big-box retail is all about selection and variety," he explains. "There's a diversity of things you're able to offer the customer, so you're not relying on one source of income."
The neighborhood's slow-but-steady gentrification was also a motivating factor -- along with the fact that the area is low on boutique coffee. Vice is grinding beans from
One Village Coffee and offering pastries from
LeBus Bakery, along with a light menu of soups and sandwiches.
And as for the tattoos?
"It's just an idea I had that I thought would be really cool," says Collazo. "To do a really nice, specialty tattoo studio...in a welcoming environment where you come in and you feel comfortable."
It took Collazo three months to receive the approvals necessary to offer tattoos. But, because the shop offers a higher-than-average wage split to its artists, Vice is already staffed with
tattooists adept at everything from portraiture and fine-line styles to old-school flash pieces.
To further diversify, the shop also offers a book lending library featuring over 1,000 titles, heavy in sci-fi paperbacks and (of course) pictoral tattoo tomes. Customers can borrow books for up to three weeks at a time.
Writer: Dan Eldridge
Source: Charlie Collazo, Vice Coffee, Tattoos & Books