Brickscape Café Builds in Bigger Brick and Mortar
LEGO, Coffee, and Community in a New Place with Space
Brickscape Café, the LEGO-focused shop, has relocated from Main Street to a bigger brick-and-mortar at 9th Avenue and Coffman Street, where it will soon include a café alongside its collection of LEGO sets, activities, and events.
A space where LEGO enthusiasts, families, and gamers can gather, the café is the brainchild of Billie Abbitt, who has blended play, creativity, and community into a unique experience.
“My location before, it was a lot smaller. It was only retail. I had one build table,” Abbitt said. “Including the storage space, I’ve got four times as much space.”
Abbitt is building Brickscape into something bigger—a café and community space designed to bring people together through play. While the retail and activity space are already drawing LEGO lovers, the café corner of Brickscape is still in development.
“We got the retail space up and running, although we’re going to do some expansion there,” Abbitt said. “We have our build tables and things, but we’re just getting ready to gear up on the Café. So that’s probably going to be coffee, mocktail bar. I’m hoping that will be open in about two months.”
One of the most eye-catching aspects of Brickscape’s new space is its colorful chairs and tables that fit the shop’s LEGO theme.
“They were part of the LEGO exhibit at the Longmont Museum. All of the furniture and the activity space were designed and built by Brack Lee,” Abbitt said.
Years ago, Abbitt ran Common Grounds Coffeehouse, a late-night coffeehouse in Gainesville, Florida, that became a social gathering for night owls, students, and musicians.
“It was the type of place where people hung out if they weren’t at work, and they weren’t sleeping—they were at this coffee house,” Abbitt said. “I mean, eight hours a day, every day for years.”
Now, with Brickscape Café, he hopes to bring that same sense of community to this venture.
“Eventually, I’d like this to be an 18-hour location—6 a.m. to midnight,” Abbitt said. “But until the café opens, I’m not really worried about expanding hours that much because I’ll need to bring on a bigger staff.”
Even before the café portion officially opens, the shop serves as a place where customers can relax, create, and interact with others. Abbitt has already introduced activities like puzzle nights and is gearing up for board game nights, including ones featuring LEGO-themed games.
“A lot of people don’t realize there have been LEGO board games constructed completely out of LEGO,” Abbitt said, pulling out a Harry Potter game set. “The entire board and everything is made from LEGO bricks, and then it’s completely playable—even the dice are LEGO.”
Abbitt considers community the heart of Brickscape’s mission.
“This is first and foremost, a community-centered business,” Abbitt said. “If it was just a retail LEGO store, I wouldn’t have done it. Retail doesn’t interest me that much. It’s being a community center, that’s what I love.”
Abbitt also sees the shop as a place for neurodiverse children and adults to feel welcome and comfortable. Kristin Baker, a parent and the only paid Brickscape employee, has seen firsthand how much of an impact Brickscape has made on her son.
“The biggest difference I’ve seen in the community with Billie is that neurodiverse kids come here because he meets them where they are,” Baker said. “It makes it easier for the parents to relax and take that load off. My son has autism, and Billie was one of the very few people who met him where he was. And he does this with all the kids. I think that creates a community for many parents who don’t feel overwhelmed by everything. Kids are allowed to be kids in here, and parents end up playing too, which is super important.”
Abbitt’s passion for LEGO goes beyond selling sets. His interest in the therapeutic aspects of LEGO play was a driving force behind the creation of Brickscape.
“When I originally came up with the idea, I wasn’t a LEGO collector. I’m not a really good builder still,” Abbitt admitted. “I worked in healthcare technology, and I had taken a leave of absence for depression, anxiety, burnout. So, on my short-term disability, I started playing with LEGO.”
Abbitt’s background in corporate training made him aware of LEGO’s broader applications.
“I used them in a lot of the training that I did in my corporate career because I did a lot of stuff in process improvement, customer experience, employee experience,” Abbitt said. “They do a lot with neurodivergence. They have special sets for visually impaired to learn braille. They have methodologies for companies to visualize problems as teams and solve them through play.”
Abbitt explained that LEGO play is more approachable and forgiving than other hobbies.
“It’s arts and crafts, but it’s a very forgiving one,” Abbitt said. “You make a mistake with LEGO bricks? You just take it apart. Just rip it off. It’s forgiving. And I think some people get a lot of anxiety going into stuff like this, but this makes it a little bit anxiety-free.”
As the shop continues to come together, it remains a space that welcomes everyone—from kids experiencing LEGO for the first time, to nostalgic adults reconnecting with childhood favorites, to those just looking for a welcoming place to gather.
“People are my passion,” Abbitt said. “Making sure that they all feel cared for. Especially in this day and age, you know, life can be hard. So, if we can have one place where you can just come, be happy, find joy, and be yourself, then fantastic. I’m just trying to improve my little piece of the world.”
The concept of LEGO and café is unique enough that it makes one wonder if anyone else has done it before.
“Out of independent places, there are two others. One actually just closed—it was in Kentucky—and then the other is in the UK,” Abbitt said. “But as far as I know, I had posted about this concept back in 2022 before both of those existed. And we opened our doors before either of them.”
Unlike many businesses looking to expand and franchise, Abbitt has no plans to take Brickscape beyond Longmont.
“I’m not planning to franchise,” Abbitt said. “If someone wants to open up something like this, I’ll consult. But for me, this is about Longmont. It’s a community-first place, and that’s it.”
For Abbitt, keeping growth in check allows him to focus on giving back.
“By having that constraint, I’m not investing in growth, growth, growth. Instead, I can give back to the community,” Abbitt said. “That means things like offering scholarships for kids who can’t afford my summer camps. I’ve got flexibility, instead of just focusing on, ‘How do I maximize every dollar?’”
Abbitt has experienced firsthand the consequences of unchecked business growth. In the days of running Common Grounds, the coffee shop quickly became a popular destination, attracting significant media attention. As a result, numerous businesses approached Abbitt with requests to establish kiosks in their locations.
“So, we did it. And it was a disaster,” Abbitt admitted. “We opened our first additional location, and my business partner and I were spending a lot of time there. But what we didn’t realize was that a big part of the personality of our original coffee house was us. The whole idea was that it should feel like hanging out in our living room.”
For Abbitt, other than LEGO, the love of role-playing games runs deep, so deep that he’s even envisioned a D&D-themed retirement home.
“My last business is going to be a retirement home based on D&D,” Abbitt laughed. “From a business perspective, this is actually a brilliant idea—it’s social, it gets people engaged, and it’s inexpensive. Some of my golden years were in junior high, when every day after school, I’d just play D&D all day. And I’m thinking, man, if you’re in a retirement home and all you do is play D&D, that would be fantastic.”
“If someone steals the idea, then I don’t have to do it,” Abbitt said with a smile.
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