The owners of Three Friends Coffee recently opened Three Friends Play Dates, a play cafe in Ogden.

The play cafe at 7038 Market St. #100 is the first of its kind in the Wilmington area. It features a large play area with an array of toys, colorful mats and playhouses alongside a coffee counter serving Three Friends Coffee drinks, including signature lattes, classic coffees and more. The play cafe, geared toward ages 0 to 7, also offers kids activities, classes and small groups for moms and kids alike. 

For Michele Marthaller, who owns Three Friends with her husband, Jesse Marthaller, and friend Mark Hanson, opening the play cafe has been a dream for years.

“I always wanted to have a play cafe,” she said. “As a mother, I knew that I wanted to have somewhere where moms can relax and where they can have play dates and they can socialize and have a break.”

Three Friends Coffee began in 2021 as a small drive-thru and walk-up trailer in a parking lot along Market Street. In 2023, the coffee shop established a brick-and-mortar location in a strip mall at 4719 New Centre Drive in Wilmington. Another location opened earlier this summer on the ground floor of Skyline Center just north of downtown Wilmington.

While the Three Friends coffee shop on New Centre Drive features a small play area, Michele Marthaller wanted a larger, enclosed space for the play cafe. They started looking for a building to fit that concept and found the Ogden space.

At 3,000 square feet, the space is nearly double the size of the 1,600-square-foot New Centre Drive location. When they signed the lease, it was just a cement floor and a bathroom, Michele Marthaller said.
 
“We had to pretty much build from the ground up,” she said, “and it was a lot of Pinterest. It was a lot of my husband … I gave him some ideas, but every time I had an idea he had two more.”

Renovations began in May and wrapped up in early September, as they worked with electricians and plumbers to get the space ready to occupy. 

During that time, they realized the space was zoned for retail use, not the restaurant use a coffee shop would require. The Three Friends owners worked with New Hanover County officials to clarify the play cafe concept, explaining the business would operate as more of a retail establishment offering kids classes and small groups than as a coffee shop, Michele Marthaller said.

“Their only request for us was to change our name from Three Friends Coffee to Three Friends Play Dates,” she said. “We couldn't have coffee in our name.”

While it was a difficult decision to change the location’s name, it meant the Three Friends owners wouldn’t have to go before the New Hanover County Planning Board and Board of Commissioners for a rezoning. That process would have delayed the play cafe’s opening until at least November, according to Michele Marthaller.

So far, the play cafe has welcomed a mix of customers, including stay-at-home moms, nannies, grandparents, families and parents who work remotely. Seating around the play area allows parents to drink coffee from the nearby cafe while watching their kids play. The play cafe has a playroom attendant during the week who hosts activities, story times and arts and crafts, Michele Marthaller said. It also has an area for outdoor play with a sandbox and other toys.

The cafe offers a sensory time with dimmed lights and classical music for the first hour of each day and Michele Marthaller is working to establish several small groups for moms who have kids around the same age. They also have a room that can be rented out for birthday parties and plan to host kid-focused events throughout the year.

“People just bring me ideas, and I'm like, ‘Let's just roll with it, like, let's use this space,’” Michele Marthaller said.

The play cafe is working with local craftspeople and vendors to sell an array of items, ranging from hair ribbons and children’s clothes to crocheted stuffed animals and purses, in its entryway.

Michele Marthaller said she’s seeing moms drive to the play cafe from across the Cape Fear region, including moms from Carolina Beach, Monkey Junction, Leland and Hampstead. The play cafe offers monthly unlimited play memberships along with day passes, punch cards and six-month and yearly passes. Opening the cafe to a positive reception from local moms has been a big win for Michele Marthaller.

“I am finally feeling all this weight lifted off my shoulders because the joy that I'm receiving in seeing all these families happy has really taken that off,” she said. “It is a success, and my passions and my dream has come true.”