Nicki Tyska has worn a lot of professional hats in Bristol over the years, including stints as a hairstylist, a real estate agent, and as the director of the East Bay Food Pantry. But one thing that she has long wanted to do is open her own boutique. This month, she is finally getting to do just that.

Though they had a “soft” opening over Memorial Day weekend, Beau Bleu Boutique and Gifts will be holding their grand opening this weekend, beginning with a ribbon cutting at 5:30 p.m. this Friday, June 16 at the 423 Hope St. location, with special opening promotions happening all weekend.

When opportunity knocked, Tyska acted fast. She had long admired the airy, high-ceilinged space on the first floor of the Belvedere Building, and on a whim, she called the property owner the day after Christmas to ask him about his plans for the space. She actually caught him cleaning it out in preparation to get it on the market. It never got there — Tyska and her husband, Andy, drove down to take a look and loved what they saw.

“The owner told me how much he wanted for it, I accepted that and we went on to contract shortly after that,” said Tyska. “So it took a few months to close, but in the meantime, I was getting a business loan and doing all that stuff behind the scenes.”

Time was tight. Tyska knew better than to miss the all-important summer season in Bristol. In addition to rushing to get the interior ready, she was dealing with the fact that the fashion buying cycle for the summer basically wrapped up last fall, long before she even began the process of buying the space.

“So by the time everything was done and ready, all the summer stuff had already been bought,” she said. “I was running a little late and scrambling to find summer clothing that I could could open up with.” Though she wasn’t able to get all of the things the wanted in all of the sizes, you wouldn’t know by perusing the racks. “I think I did a pretty good job filling it up,” she said.

Tyska has a great eye, and has gone to considerable effort to try to appeal to a broad audience in both taste and price point. “I don't want anyone to feel like they can't come in and there's not something for them in here. I’m trying to have something for everybody.”

In addition to clothes and shoes, she carries jewelry, accessories, and gifts; seasonal offerings include nautical and patriotic themed favorites that should sell briskly this month. She brought in friends to help her pick out her inventory.

“Sometimes I have trouble picking out my own outfit, never mind what the community is going wear,” she said. “They tell you to buy 30% of what you like and 30% of what you think will sell, and you guess on the rest.”

Tyska’s excited to become part of the business community in town.

“We do have some great little boutiques in the area, but our main street could really use more retail,” she said. “I’m hoping that by having this — it’s a little bit of a bigger store than most — I’m hoping that I can really attract a good audience and help lift retail downtown by bringing more people in.”

“We’re all different, everybody's different. My shop is different from Kate and Company or Wink or Jackie's Loft. So I'm just hoping that it adds to the buzz and we see even more stories open up in the area.”