Café, community hub opens in downtown Springdale
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Casa Magnolia is open on Holcomb Street in Springdale. Photo: Alex Golden/Axios
Play board games. Grab the kids some ice cream. Find a book. Eat a breakfast burrito while checking out art. The owners of the newly opened Casa Magnolia want to provide a little something for everyone.
State of play: Casa Magnolia, a cafe and community space nestled inside a big converted house in downtown Springdale, opened last month.
- The ground floor includes Sweet Dream Creamery plus the nonprofit arm of Bentonville-based Two Friends Bookstore. The pay-what-you-can bookstore seeks to make book ownership more accessible.
- The upstairs features eclectic rooms, some that feel like living rooms and smaller spaces where you can disappear with a book.
- Casa Magnolia will host poetry readings and book clubs, and display and sell art from local artists.
How it happened: Rafael Rios, known for his Mexican restaurant Yeyo's in Bentonville and Rogers, bought the building and opened the space with his brothers, Fernando and Roman Rios, and nephew Diego Rios.
- The James Beard Award semifinalist said a project like this is something he's wanted to do even before Yeyo's.
- For the hungry, a new Yeyo's food truck also sits on the property.
What they're saying: Rios said he wants the place to be for people of all ages and backgrounds.
- Casa Magnolia is a for-profit business, but is taking minimal profit and trying to keep costs down for customers, Rios told Axios, adding that some of the food items come from Rios Family Farm.
Zoom out: The opening comes as downtown Springdale is seeing lots of development and change including new restaurants, a newly renovated park and an upcoming chocolate factory concept by Onyx Coffee Lab.