Plants and a Latte More

When CARLA GRIFFIN opened The Tiny Terrace Plant Cafe in Carolina Beach in February, she had no idea if her shop would be mostly plants or mostly coffee or mostly both.   

“I knew I wanted a place for people to come and look at plants and enjoy delicious coffee in an oasis-like atmosphere,” she says. “I started out with the concept in my head. I always wanted this. It was my ultimate goal.”  

Griffin, a nurse by degree, was born and raised in Arkansas. She attended Baptist Health College Little Rock and subsequently worked for fifteen years as a pediatric cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. Starting in 1999, Griffin worked in clinical research focused on cardiology, oncology, neurology, and several other medical specialties. She lived in cities such as Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she was the director of a research company; in Rome, Georgia, where she ran her own clinical research firm; and in Atlanta and Manhattan where she worked for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Medtronic, and other medical device companies as a research consultant.  

“When I was ready to settle into a slower pace, Carolina Beach fit the mold perfectly. I had always been around water, but never near the ocean,” she says of her relocation eight years ago.  

Griffin gets her ambition honestly. “From my mom,” she says, who was also a nurse. “She inspired me in so many ways. She was just full of life, full of love. She had the most amazing green thumb of anyone I’ve ever known. My mom could make anything grow. We always had plants around, but I didn’t really appreciate them. When my mom passed, I felt a calling towards plants.”   

Griffin also has a passion for coffee. “When I traveled for work, I would find little mom and pop coffee shops where I would sit and work for hours,” she recalls.  

Griffin describes her Tiny Terrace Plant Café as a relaxing, beautiful place for coffee or tea or just reading a book or working. The cafe serves lattes, espressos, matcha, chai cold brews, and other coffee drinks from beans roasted by Blue Cup Roasters in the Cargo District. She offers dairy and nondairy milk options and homemade flavored syrups as well as herbal, green, black, and elderberry teas.  

“In the summer, the most popular drink was my cold brew,” she says. “Now for fall, it’s my specialty lattes with homemade syrups. I keep the drinks as super-organic as I can.”.  

Both locals and tourists are finding their way to the boutique coffee shop and plant oasis located at 1009 North Lake Park Boulevard. Plants including philodendrons, pothos, cacti, and succulents fill the cafe. “The majority of guests come with one thing on their mind, a plant or a cup of coffee,” Griffin says. “But then they say, ‘Oh my gosh, are the plants for sale?’”  

She has come a long way in a few short months, opening with one tiny espresso machine and making renovations to a space that was more suited for a doctor’s office than a coffee shop. Yet she’s already planning for the future. “Plant education or classes in macrame,” she says. She has a room for rental as a semi-private event venue and will soon sell merchandise like T-shirts, essential oils, and candles on her website along with, of course, plants, pots, and coffee.  

“Being a woman-owned business has been inspiring,” Griffin says, offering her own best advice for success: “Believe in your concept. Believe in yourself.”

To view more of photographer Madeline Gray’s work, go to madelinegrayphoto.com.

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