Unhinged Coffee Co. Takes Over Knightdale Retrobar Space, May Opening Planned

Unhinged Coffee Co. is bringing a permanent home to 319 N. First Ave. in Knightdale, settling into the former Rewind Retrobar space where owners Jonny Mocha and Cody Vaughn have already been running pop-ups since late 2025. WRAL reported a grand opening expected in May 2026, while The News & Observer's Renee Umsted reported the team is targeting an early-April soft opening, with renovations described as in the home stretch.

The space will seat roughly 70 to 80 people once complete. Mocha, Vaughn, and Knightdale residents Chris and Alyssa Craighead are handling the buildout together, replacing the bar's existing look with lighter paint and wall murals. "We wanted to make sure that it felt alive and felt bright and happy," Mocha told the News & Observer.

If the claim holds up, Knightdale will get what the News & Observer described as its first locally owned, brick-and-mortar coffee shop, a notable gap for a town that has watched the broader Triangle coffee scene expand steadily in recent years.

Unhinged has operated as a mobile cart turned pop-up for more than a year, building a following well before securing a fixed address. Those pop-ups at the Rewind space included "Find Your Therapist," a speed-dating-style event where visitors rotated through short conversations with multiple mental health clinicians. That programming reflects the explicit mission Vaughn described to the News & Observer: "The goal is really to give people in our community an opportunity to step into caring for their mental health, because there's a lot of stigma and fear and hesitation when it comes to that."

The new café is planned to run all-day espresso service alongside evening pours, a format the team has been testing at the First Avenue location since late 2025. A regular schedule of workshops, speaker nights, and community meetups will continue the wellness programming that defined the pop-up years. The owners told the News & Observer that a dedicated space will make it easier to lock in recurring events and coordinate with local organizations on wellness initiatives, though specific partner organizations have not yet been named publicly.

The community texture Mocha and Vaughn have built during pop-ups is part of what they are trying to preserve in the brick-and-mortar version. Mocha crocheted baby blankets for families who visited during the Rewind pop-ups, and Vaughn watched regulars arrive as strangers and spend hours together before leaving as friends. "You'll know it's working when Cody is behind taking orders with someone's random baby in his hands," Mocha said.

Follow Unhinged Coffee Co. on Instagram at @unhingedcoffee.co for updates on the opening timeline.