‘Choose your own adventure’ at all-day coffee, cocktail bar coming to Charlotte
Grab your morning coffee, mocktails and more at a new bar concept coming soon to Charlotte.
Plot Twist, an all-day coffee and cocktail bar, will set up shop near Trope Bookshop and Wiloe Home & Gift in Plaza Midwood. It’s slated to open sometime in April.
“I always had this idea stirring ... for a true third space that had a multidimensional beverage program,” founder Nikki Velazquez told CharlotteFive. “I want this to feel like you’re going to your 30-something-year-old big sister’s apartment in Tribeca or Brooklyn.”
At Plot Twist, customers can look forward to beverages made with house-made syrups, seasonal and locally-sourced ingredients. Coffee and cocktails are on the menu alongside mocktails, seltzers and THC drinks. Light bites including nuts and chips will also be available.
Velazquez and her team are still fine-tuning the menu, but the setup will allow customers to “tinker and explore” a variety of drink combinations.
For instance, all signature drinks will be available in a cocktail, mocktail or THC form.
“Most times when you’re dealing with craft cocktails, you go spirit first and then build around that it,” she explained. “We’re creating a new base-forward beverage program to where we can adapt and flow more. So it’s kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure.”
Plot Twist will mark Velazquez’s first owner-operated concept, run with the help of her fiancé and business partner Eric Flanigan. She spent more than a decade in the hospitality space and has had a hand in launching projects including Charlotte Beer Garden and, more recently, Tipsy Pickle in Camp North End.
Now, the 34-year-old is looking to step out on her own with concept centered on community.
“This isn’t just another bar,” Velazquez said. “This is a true third space for you to enter, and we just happen to sell coffee and cocktails.”
Housed in an old auto garage, the space will be transformed into “a flexible third space that works just as well for daytime coffee and remote working as it does for casual evenings with friends,” the release said.
The 1,627-square-foot bar can seat up to 50 people, plus an additional 30 on the patio.
The bar’s beverage program will use the same quality, locally sourced ingredients across its coffee, cocktail and mocktail menus. This will help with costs, Velazquez said, and allow for more creativity.
She also plans to tap local vendors and other women-owned brands. Some drinks will rotate weekly, based on what’s available.
“Our signatures will stay the same, but we really want to stick to the community aspect of pulling in what’s the freshest and what’s happening within the season,” Velazquez told CharlotteFive.
Plot Twist
Cuisine: Coffee, cocktails + mocktails
Instagram: @plottwistclt
This story was originally published January 22, 2026 at 9:41 AM.