Catering to manly tastes

Don’t let the turquoise storefront with the purple trim fool you – Kingsley & Scout is a place for men.

The boutique opened Dec. 4 on North Monroe Street and offers a variety of local clothing brands, men’s accessories and hand-painted signs.

Owners Billy Jones, 32, and Nick Lewis, 36, have a combined 25 years of retail experience between them. In fact, they met 17 years ago while working at a local mall and they know their target market well.

“Most men don’t think ‘Oh, I can’t wait to go shopping!’ ” said Jones, grinning. “That’s why we wanted to make this a comfortable place for guys to hang out.”

Beanies and ball caps fill the shelves, and yes, there are a couple of taxidermy animal heads on the walls.

“We want to fill the gap between higher end stores like Nordstrom, and stuff you’d find at the mall,” Jones said.

Supporting other locally-owned business is important to them. Clothing from the Great PNW lines the walls.

“It’s a Spokane business, the next address over,” Jones said.

Leather goods from Westward Leather Co. fill a display case. The hand-stitched goods are made by Ben Fine, who also works as a bartender at Durkin’s Liquor Bar downtown.

A cheerily burning candle offers another reminder that this is a shop for dudes. No floral or apple pie scents here – this one is a whiskey-and-cola-scented candle made by Craft and Foster. Other available scents include bourbon and tobacco, as well as leather and teak.

Even toothpicks take on a manly flair. The shop features gourmet Daneson toothpicks in flavors like single malt scotch and bourbon blend. The brand appealed to Jones and Lewis because of its sustainability motto.

“For every tree they chop down, they plant 100,” said Lewis.

While they’ve branded the store as a men’s mecca, the owners are keenly aware that 50 percent of their shoppers are women. Construction of a backroom bar is underway. Jones and Lewis say offering wine and beer will add to the ambience and will help make Kingsley & Scout a destination for men, women and couples to hang out.

When they hammered out a business plan, the name came quickly. Kingsley is the middle name of Lewis’ son and Scout is the middle name of Jones’ daughter.

Their three-step plan includes the retail store, the backroom bar and e-commerce. They reached out to other locally owned businesses for feedback.

“They told us to focus on one thing at a time and do that thing really well,” Lewis said.

His talents include hand-painted signs. He did the artwork on their storefront as well as the signage for Vessel Coffee Roasters across the street.

The location of the store wasn’t happenstance – Jones works full time at Brickyard Barbershop next door, so they’d eyed this spot for awhile. And unlike some of their North Monroe business counterparts, Jones and Lewis fully support the proposed Monroe Street redesign – in fact, that’s one of the reason’s this location was so attractive to them.

“What we really believe in is building a strong community in the North Monroe business district,” Jones said. “We envision a walking neighborhood like Perry Street, but bigger. The key is making going back and forth across the street easier. There’s going to be some growing pains, but we hope it will be worth it.”

Lewis agreed, adding, “We see the business as a way to get more involved with our neighborhood and our city.”

Both of them say the most important thing in their lives is their children, and they hope the shop will be something of a legacy for them.

Jones knows about that kind of heritage – his grandfather, Darrell Jones, owned the Donut Parade for many years.

“This is part passion project and part building something that we believe in, that will last and that our kids can be proud of,” he said.