Richland’s Caterpillar Cafe is ready for its next chapter, opening a third location years after it grew out of the Adventures Underground bookstore in Richland’s Uptown Shopping Center.

The cafe will move into the coffee stand space inside the Richland Public Library, 955 Northgate Drive, a spot previously held by other shops that used it as a business incubator, including Novel Coffee and Teas, and The Kozy Kup.

The cafe also has a location at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Caterpillar Cafe owner Amanda Divine has been at the helm since the cafe's start.

“We had regulars on day one and that’s no exaggeration,” she said. “They came in in the morning and back in the afternoon.”

Growth mindset

Adventures Underground opened in 2007 at 1391 George Washington Way, started by Divine and a co-owner. The cafe opened next door, at 227 Symons St., in 2015, originally operating with a steampunk theme before Divine bought out the other interested parties to become sole proprietor of both businesses.

Despite the different addresses, the bookstore and cafe are connected and passable within the interior.

Divine opened the shop with a growth mindset – signing on for the large space at the north end of the historic plaza with the hopes the store would never need to move.

Existing for 17 years as big box stores and online retailers gobbled up many locally-owned storefronts is no small feat, and she admitted it hasn’t always been easy to keep the cafe going, which has transformed itself, much like a caterpillar, as the years have passed.

“We focus on things that we care about and also things you can’t get most anywhere else,” Divine said. “We try not to compete with the big people. Our inventory isn’t exclusive, but the key is putting it all together. We focus on community and that in-person aspect and being able to make product referrals.”

In the beginning, a portion of Adventures Underground’s 10,000 square feet was rented out to an art space, but that was back when the business sold mostly just books. Now, a large part of its inventory is devoted to board games and records.

There are 35 employees, including many full-timers, with some who work at both the bookstore and cafe, and others devoted to one or the other.

“Everybody we hire has some kind of passion in our inventory,” Divine said.

For Caterpillar Cafe Manager Jay Davis, that passion is food. The cafe offers a nod to literature with many of its item names, including the White Rabbit mocha, Jabberwocky drink, and Better than Butterbeer. It also serves paninis, wraps, sandwiches and salads, along with beer and wine.

Davis manages the cafe and oversaw its first expansion, opening at PNNL in north Richland last summer, where staff serve food out of a restricted space available only to badged government employees.

PNNL’s commercial kitchen will be the cafe’s home base for food created for its library location, which will include pastries and sandwiches.

Key to success? Inclusivity

Davis said he’s proud of the inclusive nature of his workplace.

“All parties, all groups are welcome,” Davis said. “We try to make sure people know we are a safe space.”

The cafe hosts open mic events like “Gays and Berets” and intends to accommodate future Urban Poets Society events.

Customers can check out a selection of board games and play them at the cafe, or even take a spin on a pinball machine.

Davis credited Divine for “amplifying the voice” of both the customers and the employees and feels that’s been key to her continued success.

Adventures Underground has long established itself as a place where people feel “seen,” especially those who might be interested in anime, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic the Gathering, DC Collectibles and Kotobukiya figures.

The intention has been to offer community to “like-minded souls, with a passion for pop culture, entertainment, literature and the just plain weird.”

“We want people to know it’s OK to be them, and that includes the product we carry, which you sometimes don’t find anywhere else,” Divine said. “Whatever they’re wearing, whatever they look like, however they identify, we try to have products that support that.”

Divine’s passion for books drove her and a former boyfriend to first begin selling them online 25 years ago while still in college, at a time many stores didn’t even have a website. She said it started as a book-buying hobby that turned into shipping items out of her parents’ garage. That grew to a storage space, which they filled with thousands of books, comic books and records.

“There’s always been a need for the bookstore,” she said. “My heart is books.”

Divine says she’s a fan of all genres and Davis likes to read sports stories with motivational themes he can apply to his life.

While books take up most of the floor space, today’s biggest sellers are games, toys and collectible action figures. But Adventures Underground still sells plenty of books and has a huge selection of records and some cassettes, with plenty of additional stock in storage to rotate and refill the inventory with found treasures.

It has cut back on the purchase of used items but still accepts graphic novels and some trading cards and board games for store credit. Book donations also are welcomed.

Since not every community has an independent bookstore available, Adventures Underground is part of a list of retailers supported by the nonprofit bookshop.org. When shopping this site, customers can choose to order from an independent bookseller and that store gets a portion of the sale.

The new library location for the Caterpillar Cafe opens this month. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

The flagship cafe and store are open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

Advunderground.com, @AdvUnderground7, thecaterpillarcafe.com, @Caterpillar.CafeWA