A coffee shop is opening at 17 Magazine St. with a dinosaur-meets-cowboy theme. That sounds like a branding exercise.
It isn't. Both halves are real.
Hidden Grounds Coffee is the first out-of-state location for a Wilmington shop founded in 2023 by siblings Caitlin and Josh Skidmore along with Josh's wife Tay. The Charleston cafe shares the Magazine Street building with Garden & Gun and the event coordinators for 21 Magazine, the old City Jail.
Where the dinosaurs came from
None of the Skidmores planned to open a coffee shop. A building in Wilmington that had been one of their favorite stores went up for sale, and that was that.
Then they started renovating the backyard.
"When we were renovating our backyard, there were hundreds and hundreds of these rocks that we had to dig up," Tay Skidmore told the Post & Courier. "We were like, 'How cool would it be if we found a fossil?' And that got our conversation about dinosaurs going because we were trying to think of an icon for the store."
Where the cowboys came from
That one is heavier. The cowboy half is an homage to Caitlin and Josh's dad, Frank, who has passed away. He worked for Marlboro for 30 years, which gave the siblings a lifelong connection to the Marlboro man.
So: dinosaurs out of the dirt, cowboys for their father. Neither came from a brand deck.
Why Charleston
Family ties, plus the city's similarities to Wilmington. But the building did most of the convincing.
"When we came across the building that we are building out right now, we were just like, 'It just feels special. It feels like a place that we can call home, that we can build a community around and bring people in,'" she said.
She calls the spot an oasis, more mellow and quieter because it sits off Queen Street.
What to order
Coffee only, no in-house food preparation at the start. The best seller is the Salty Dino Latte, a salted-caramel vanilla drink with caramel drizzle.
The weird one is the Nanner Pudding Latte: espresso with banana and caramel, topped with banana cream pudding cold foam and crushed vanilla wafers.
They hope to partner with local bakeries down the line.
Opening
This summer, at 17 Magazine St.
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