Two new shops open in Garland District

Two new businesses with intriguing offerings are practically neighbors in the Garland District.

Destiny Floral at 905 W. Garland Ave. opened Oct. 2, while Cole Music Co. has been at 901 W. Garland Ave. since early September.

Susan Davis and Taffy McCoy own Destiny Floral. The pink sandwich board on the sidewalk outside explains that the shop also offers jewelry and more.

Davis said she and her partner love the Garland District.

“People are so nice here,” she said. Their business is “really two stores in one,” she said, pointing to the floral offerings and the wide variety of costume jewelry and other “pretty things.”

In addition to costume jewelry, the shop offers lotions, soaps, figurines, unusual toffee and elegant tea ware, including tiny tea sets for children.

Destiny Flora also dries bridal bouquets.

“We are the only ones in the city to do that,” Davis said. Once dried, the bouquets can be placed in either shadow boxes or under glass domes. Several finished bouquets awaiting pickup by newlyweds recently attested to the shop’s expertise.

The shop is a Teleflora affiliate and also delivers “all over the city,” Davis said.

Just a few feet east, Eben Cole’s business focuses on instruments for jazz and bluegrass musicians. “Nobody else in town caters to those guys,” he said.

Cole said he probably has the best collection of vintage instruments in the city. His store offers new and used guitars and amplifiers plus Cole’s musical instrument repair service.

The name Cole Music Co. is vintage, too. Eben’s father started the company in California years back and the Garland Avenue store is the first Spokane evidence of it.

The younger Cole, who plays guitar and bass, operated a home instrument business for several years before recently deciding on a storefront operation.

His family is music-oriented and his father specialized in high-end violin repair. He worked with his father and also apprenticed in woodwind and reed repair, he said.

Cole graduated from Shadle Park High School and Spokane Falls Community College before beginning an outdoor recreation major at Eastern Washington University.

“At that point I realized that this (instrument repair) was what I really wanted to do.”