MAKE WAY FOR CAFE Restaurant, patio – and more – coming to Dalton

PHOTOS BY JOHN TYRRELL

J. Miller & Son demolished the building last week at 40 W Main St. in downtown Dalton.

PHOTOS BY KURT IMMLER | DGKN

A building was taken down in downtown Dalton to make room for a patio space. The vacant building next door will be renovated to house a cafe as well as other businesses. 

PHOTO BY SCOTT BEATTY

 

DALTON  Diners can expect some bliss in their sojourn downtown – possibly as early as this spring.

A local family plans to open a cafe in downtown Dalton.

Last week, the building that formerly housed the office for retired attorney Roland Kauffman came down at 40 W Main St.

The plan is not to rebuild but instead turn the space into a patio, which will be a seating area open to the community. This goes hand-in-hand with even bigger news.

The Beatty family has purchased the building next door at 36 W Main St. that has been home to the Bliss Cafe, Edgerton Pharmacy and other businesses. The family is working to bring a second location of their successful Brewster restaurant, Sojourn Cafe, to downtown Dalton.

Longtime educator and former Dalton superintendent Scott Beatty said he hopes this will be a spark and more businesses will follow suit to make the downtown area a destination point once again. The cafe at 255 Wabash Ave. S in Brewster is open for breakfast and lunch and features baked goods, sandwiches, wraps, soups, mac and cheese and an extensive selection of espresso-based drinks. Scott and Amy Beatty have owned the cafe for about three years. Beatty said that he and his wife plan to have a similar concept in downtown Dalton. The cafe will be open for breakfast and lunch as well as special events in the evening and the space can be reserved for special occasions such as parties and showers.

“We’re going to try to replicate it in downtown,” Beatty said. “The public took care of me and my family this is an opportunity to give back. I have children in the community, grandkids in the community and it’s really important to my wife and I to reinvest and I do believe Dalton is one of the greatest places to live. We just need to invest in our community and we have some people that are already doing that.”

“Sojourn means a temporary stay,” according to the cafe’s website at www.sojournbrewster.com. “Our hope is that you will stop and stay for a visit. Most importantly, that you will find some peace as you journey through life. The logo contains a cardinal, which has many symbolic meanings, but the idea behind the use of the bird was to remember those we’ve lost.”

The Grim family ran the Bliss Cafe for 10 years from 1999 to 2009 in honor of their son, Toby Grim, who was killed in a car accident.

At a recent village council meeting, downtown business owners expressed concerns about the appearance of buildings downtown and asked council if there was anything they could do to improve the look of downtown. At the same time, a local group of residents was quietly working with the county to get the ball rolling on improving aesthetics and bring in more business.

The building at 40 W Main St. was up for auction and about half a dozen residents had the same interest of doing what was best for the community and downtown area but didn’t have a specific plan for the building.

“We banded together at that point and put a number in and bid for that building,” Beatty said.
Beatty said Wayne County Commissioner Jonathan Hofstetter helped them with the process of using a county program, which is designed to take down aging buildings and bring back life to a space. J. Miller & Son was hired to demolish the building.

The patio could welcome food trucks or markets.

Ultimately, the open seating area may feed into three businesses. Along with Sojourn Cafe, two other businesses may be housed in the building.

The building at 36 W Main St. housed Edgerton Drug from 1958 to 1971, according to Eric McFarren, village police chief, whose mom, Robin, lived in the building when she was younger with her brother and parents. McFarren said that his grandparents ran Edgerton Drug, which included a pharmacy and soda fountain, and they also opened Bev’s Beauty Shop.

He also remembered it was Jerry’s Men’s Shop at one time.

Many people remember the space as Bliss Cafe.

Beatty said the Bliss may have been ahead of its time and they would like to recreate the cafe.
The plan is not to compete with what is already in the area but meet a need by bringing a cafe downtown and also hopefully encourage other businesses to open up downtown.

Much work still needs to go into the building but the plan is to have it ready next year and perhaps as early as the spring.

Beatty said some announcements about the other businesses will be made at a later date.
He mentioned some ideas he has for the cafe including possibly hosting a podcast and having local government and school officials on to share the news.

“There’s more to come and we’re just hoping it’s kind of a firestarter,” Beatty said.
He said like the Brewster cafe he plans to use local products from meats to coffee to produce and they may also set up a retail spot to sell local items.

Beatty said they have been in contact with Heritage Ohio out of Columbus to help with downtown development. They may be looking at a path toward having someone come in to look at traffic flow and recommend what businesses may succeed.

“We have an opportunity to give back,” Beatty said. “We want to raise the bar and it’s too good of a community and too good of a location to accept anything less. … It should be a destination point.”