• The Abbey opened up in 1991 in the location that is now Bossa Nova.
• When it opened, The Abbey was a coffee shop.
• According to owner David Cooley, in an interview with Frontiers, the coffee shop got its theme from the stained glass windows found in his business partner’s basement and its name because with just five letters, the “Abbey” could save costs on signage.
• In 1994, The Abbey moved across the street into the area where the bakery and patio bar are today.

Cooley said, "I would market it by going down to the Log Cabin [Alcoholics Anonymous] down the street and, you know, "Come up for coffee!" I would also just get a lot of good-looking guys to hang out there and buy them coffee and cake for the night. And people started noticing that it was a really attractive crowd in there. It had a good three-year run. Then I had the opportunity to move to where we are now, across the street, to this terra-cotta statuary business."