A natural skincare shop, a feminist gift shop and a podcast studio are now open for business in their own Downtown Memphis storefronts, thanks to a retail initiative called Open on Main.

A partnership between Downtown Memphis Commission and Women’s Business Center South, the program provides emerging retail entrepreneurs with access to vacant storefronts on Main Street, where they can test their market strategies and contribute to the city’s retail ecosystem.

Open on Main offers rent-free opportunities for tenants to showcase their businesses for a temporary period of up to one year.

A locally-owned Black coffee shop is expanding outside of its Whitehaven roots into Uptown, with one goal in mind, bringing people together in the 901 now.

“Do you want a medium or a large? Do you want it hot or iced? Do you want a lot of caffeine or a little caffeine? Sweet or not sweet? We do that, we make it real simple,” Alicia Bracewell, Manager at Muggin’ Coffeehouse, said.

No matter how you like your cup of Joe, making coffee accessible to everyone is the flavor in mind.

“A lot of times when we go to different coffee shops, they have these fancy names and weird mixtures or whatever, but we don’t,” Bracewell said. “Anyone who doesn’t know anything about coffee can come in and order from Muggin’. Most of our employees actually have no coffee background.”

The inside of the site at 65 Monroe Ave. was a white empty box, according to sisters Kristen and Lindsey Archer, who own the gift/home decor business ARCHd. Then they noticed something — three built-in arched nooks.

“This was meant to be,” Kristen remembered thinking. “This is perfect.”

And so, the women opened ARCHd — in that once-white box now made colorful — on Aug. 24.

Uptown is getting a new coffee shop.

Muggin Coffeehouse plans to open its second location at 606 N. Main St. on Monday, owner Ken Olds said. Muggin will have a soft opening from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday.

Ken and Mary Olds opened the first Muggin Coffeehouse at 1139 Brownlee Road in Whitehaven in 2020. The Uptown location is the first commercial tenant in the Malone Park Commons development.

Memphis foodies no longer have to travel all the way to the “Big Apple” to enjoy one of New York City’s best Italian restaurants.

Forsythia NYC is opening a second location in Downtown Memphis in 2024. Renovations are already well underway at 107 S. Main for the future home of Forsythia Memphis.

On its Instagram page, Forsythia NYC said it had partnered with 18 Main to open a second Forsythia as well as a coffee shop, an Italian bistro, and a bar in the historic building downtown over the course of the next year.

The Downtown Memphis historic landmark known as the “South’s Grand Hotel,” won two first-place wins, including Best Hotel Restaurant and Best Pet Friendly Hotel.

The Peabody’s signature restaurant is called Chez Phillipe.

The Peabody, built in 1933, also earned second place for the category of Best Historic Hotel.

The travel awards list is published by USA Today.