Iris Coffee Lab’s Madeleine Rising Up in Smoky Hollow

The former Tucker Street Diner space is transforming into an all-day bakery and cafe.

Local favorite Iris Coffee Lab is brewing up something sweet. Set to take over the former Tucker Street Diner space in Smoky Hollow hopefully by October is the coffee shop’s new sister concept Madeleine, a bakery-meets-cafe bringing best-in-class coffee, cold-fermented bread and pastries to the neighborhood.

Iris co-owners Bryan and Reghan Haven are actually no strangers to the space. They came “dangerously close” to occupying it back in 2024, says Bryan, but were unable to make it happen at that time. “Something in me was saying your story with Smoky Hollow is not over,” he recalls. Two years later, that intuition proved right.

Though located only a three-minute walk away from Iris, Madeleine will boast three times the square footage, with a full kitchen that will allow them to curate a fuller all-day menu—while slowing things down and focusing in on the marriage of world-class coffee and world-class bread in an intimate, beautiful environment. 

“I’m really excited for Raleigh to see three times the vision of what we think the city deserves—and to build something three times as special,” emphasizes Bryan. “As natives, we both care so much about this city. Madeleine is kind of our love letter to Raleigh.”

The name also serves as a love letter to Reghan. A storybook romance, the pair met when they were kids, and Bryan called her Madeleine after the James Bond films he used to love watching with his dad. Their feelings for each other never let up, and the childhood romance eventually blossomed into marriage.

“That Smoky Hollow space deserves a lot of life and love and could be so magical, it only made sense to do this in honor of her,” gushes Bryan. “Madeleine is the ultimate expression of my love toward her and her love toward others—and our love for Raleigh as a whole.”

While Iris will continue serving its beloved coffee, matcha and bagels, Madeleine will, naturally, be very bread and pastry heavy—with local baker Aliesha Genevieve of Genevieve Pastry at the helm. The trio have been friends for a long time, collaborating on various occasions, before the partnership was secured last year. 

In preparation for her role at Madeleine, Genevieve will be staging at Brooklyn bakery L’Appartement 4F, which went viral for its croissant cereal a few years ago. “They were so excited about helping us build this and hosting Aliesha, and we’re really excited for her to bring a lot of their influence to Raleigh,” says Ryan.

In addition to a full bread and pastry program—with a core focus on Nordic-style bread and laminated pastries—the Madeleine menu will feature brunch-adjacent items, tartines, protein-heavy lunch selects, what they hope will be the “truly remarkable breakfast burrito Raleigh has a deep hunger for,” and perhaps one or two bagels carried over from Iris.

But rest assured the Madeleine experience doesn’t begin and end with ordering at the counter. The duo has designed a 40-foot-long bar that will allow guests to engage with staff throughout every step of the drink-making process, opening up the opportunity for a thoughtful education lesson.

“We really love interacting with our community,” says Reghan. “But a lot of the time it’s hard when that interaction stops at the register. We’re selfishly excited to see how we can continue good conversation past that point with this really long, linear bar.”

Other changes being made to the space include replacing all the windows with ones that will allow the aromas of fresh bread and coffee to flow through Smoky Hollow, adding outdoor seating, and just a general aesthetic facelift with soft, natural woods and lighting. 

As Bryan describes it, if Iris is reminiscent of Brooklyn, Madeleine is more Uptown/Soho—both serving adjacent offerings slightly tailored to each surrounding demographic. “We dream about it like Monday through Thursday you’re at Iris, and Friday through Sunday you’re at Madeleine with your family enjoying pastries and maybe more of an encompassing food menu.”

Together with popular Smoky Hollow spots like Madre, The Crunkleton, Midwood Smokehouse and Moon Room, Madeleine helps the area establish itself as a true all-day destination. 

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Brewing Up Buzz
Ahead of Madeleine’s opening, Bryan and Reghan will host a mini cafe residency outside the Smoky Hollow space—likely beginning in late August—where Raleighites will be able to preview the different styles of coffee and matcha they’ll be serving. Genevieve will also be popping up to showcase some of her pastries. “She’s a once-in-a-generation talent,” beams Bryan. “We’re really excited for Raleigh to see her creativity unleashed.”