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If it’s kind of a cool lifestyle experience you want, you may want to drop in on the recently opened Dagny’s Spirits. I was one of roughly 200 people at their grand opening a week ago, sampling the wines, the do-it-yourself customized coffees and the Mikklesen Pastry Shop’s finest delicacies, among other treats.
But there’s more, more, more here. It’s the atmosphere that co-owners Lauren and Kate Keillor are trying to generate in their space in Pebblebrook Center on Collier Boulevard. “We want you to come in and feel like hanging out,” Lauren says. “You can read a book in one of our comfy chairs. We’ve got free wi-fi. We have two classes coming up where you’ll bring in four wine glasses and get to paint them with the help of an artist. We’ll be having poetry readings and book signings.
“One woman told me now she has a home. She was invited by a friend to go out for a glass of wine—which she doesn’t drink—but can come to Dagny’s and have a cappuccino with that friend.”
It’s spirit as well as the spirits with the Keillors. They’re doing good things, too, out in the community, sponsoring a cancer benefit and a tennis tournament. And they’re already looking to bring their wine-coffee-hangout sensibility to a second location in Naples. Dagny’s, Kate says, means “new day” in Norwegian. That’s what the Keillors aim to provide for artsy, social-minded lovers of fine wines and coffees among us.