Coffee, cocktails and conversation: That’s the idea behind Entity Lounge, the newest addition to Overland Park’s CityPlace.
Longtime friends Kirt Rithmixay, Belly Vang and Patricia Ghavami opened the lounge to customers last week.
In their earliest days of operations, owners say they’re optimistic about the lounge’s new place in the community.
Entity Lounge operates at 11216 Switzer Road
- The lounge operates out of a space on the ground level of CityPlace, beneath the Apex at CityPlace apartments.
- The space neighbors the Image Studios 360 beauty salon and HotWorx. It’s also just down the street from Rithmixay’s other business with his wife, Beloved Nails & Spa.
- Entity Lounge operates from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily as a coffee shop, and from 4 p.m. to midnight every night as a cocktail lounge.
Entity Lounge serves coffee by day, cocktails by night
During the day, the lounge operates as a cozy coffee shop. Its café menu includes a range of caffeinated beverages, from lattes and macchiatos to “signature” drinks like “de leche” lattes (made with espresso, caramel, dulce de leche and milk).
At 4 p.m., the lounge trades caffeine for cocktails. The bar menu includes cocktails like the “prairie winds” (made with dark rum and Jamaican rum) and the “Entity 30” (made with whiskey and creme de violette).
The coffee side of Entity is a passion project for Ghavami, as coffee is something that she said she’s found can always brighten even her hardest days.
She’d been wanting to open a coffee shop for a while when Rithmixay offered her the chance to bring that idea to life in his new lounge.
“It was just something that came from my heart — I wasn’t really trying to do it for the money,” she said.
Ghavami said her son, Julian Lopez, always told her he’d support her idea to open a coffee shop — and he’s kept his word. In fact, customers can now find him behind the counter at Entity.
“He’s now my lead barista,” she said. “He never wants to take the day off.”
Owners want Entity to be a distinct space
The word “entity” is defined as a state of existing in a distinct way. That’s what owners hope the space can be for customers, whether those customers are there for a latte or a cocktail.
Some customers have even sought out both, coming in for a cocktail at night and then stopping in the next morning to try out the coffee side.
“We definitely always want to promote both sides of the business,” Rithmixay said. “Just to be able to expose ourselves as much as possible.”
As new customers have started to trickle in, Rithmixay said excitement has been building. He said Entity might even eventually expand with other locations — but for now, he and Entity’s co-owners are mostly focused on getting on their feet at their new CityPlace space.
“The first week was actually pretty good. People just wanted to rush in and try this,” he said.
Ultimately, the owners hope the main takeaway customers have is not just the drinks, but experiencing the space as a whole. It’s an experience that they’re excited to bring to the southern Johnson County market.
“(Customers are) used to having to go far away to get this type of experience,” Ghavami said. “It’s nice to see that people are so excited about having something like this so close.”
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