Owner Whitney Wedding
The brand new Winans Chocolates + Coffee opened quietly today at 221 N. Patterson Boulevard, just across from the ball park near RiverScape. Their actual grand opening will be this Friday.
When I went in to visit there was a line of people ready to get their caffeine fix. Owner Laurie Reiser shared that she was excited and a little overwhelmed with the new location. Not that the business was new to her, she had worked with Ben Czaka, another Winans franchise owner, as well as with Caribou Coffee, Peets Coffee and has spent the last five years with Starbucks.
She explained when they bought their first Winans franchise, located at The Greene, the business was already up and running, so creating this one from scratch was a bit more of a process. With guidance from Winans Corporate and a bit of her own decorating taste, the store has a rich, elegant and welcoming feeling The chairs just got delivered today, and they are still waiting on some of their table bases. Their wine permit is pending with the state and Laurie says she hopes to have their wine to sell by Friday.
She says she was “ready for something she could own and when CareSource came calling, offering up the location I loved the idea of being downtown where so much was happening. While there are a lot of coffee shops on the other end of town, there is nothing around here.” There is even a door that leads directly to the CareSource offices upstairs, which guaranteed them some instant business.
All Dayton area stores are franchises, withe several different owners. This will be the 21st Winans, all in Ohio, except for one lone location in Iowa. all chocolates are still made at the Piqua headquarters as is all coffee still roasted there and delivered to the stores. Currently the business, established in the early 1900’s and in its 4th generation of family ownership, still makes all the all chocolates at the Piqua headquarters and all the coffee is still roasted there and delivered to the stores, according to Winans corporate owner Laurie Winans Reiser. Coincidently there is a corporate owned Winans that also opened today in Sidney.
Whitney’s franchise stores have partnered with Boosalis Baking to bring in fresh baked goodies each day, along with the chocolates and coffee drinks, frozen hot chocolate, lattes and smoothes.
