“Was doing fine- now doing finer” Small Business Summer series
I have my favorite towns a stone’s throw from my front door. Clintonville has become one of them. Over the years I have grown very fond of seeing the new businesses reviving the historic downtown buildings when we kick off the season with their annual Friday night car show.
I have admired The Living Room for a while now due to it’s integration of a cozy environment with antiques and eclectic art available for sale. Considered a coffee shop (with breakfast and lunch sandwiches and a variety of ever changing seasonal drinks) you never feel like you are dining or drinking in a restaurant or a store. You do, in fact, feel like you are lounging in someone’s living room.
While the front of the building is outfitted with slouchy, broken in couches arranged in front of large glass windows peering out at main street, the back of the store is where I chose to sit on this particular day.
I can’t help myself. I’m a sucker for those patio lights.
And anywhere that uses mason jars as water glasses and serves you a sandwich with pesto that looks this good!
It also gave me a chance to admire some of the unique furniture for sale by local craftsman, including this super cool barrel table that would make the perfect kids toy hideaway when you have to clean up a living room in a hurry.
But time and time again my focus kept being drawn back to the building, the structure, the parts of this place that are unique and show they have endured, been around for a while…
Especially the exposed wood beams that you can find throughout the shop.
The goldenrod color of this one was especially intriguing. It brought back memories for me of an old hardware store and the era in which that color would have prevailed in popularity.
I would love to know why the 101 is written in that type of font on top of a painted beam. The painting of the beam implies it was exposed at other junctures of this building’s history. But the act of writing on top of the paint alludes to an intent to keep it covered up. Questioning what this big beautiful building was in it’s previous life- I was drawn to the collection of newspaper clippings in a hallway.
“Was doing fine- now doing finer!”
That about sums it up.
As someone who recently made a correlation between the shiny rides and working tractors at the May car show, learning that this coffee shop was once a major hub for farm equipment felt quite appropriate.
Clintonville is, after all, famous for it’s part in the 4-wheel drive movement. The museum in town is on my list to visit and I hope it can be a part of my upcoming Fall Travel Series. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There is still plenty of summer to get through yet. We have more businesses off the beaten bath to explore!
And- In Case You Missed It– here are some other small businesses you can support!
Erb Family Farm & Greenhouse in Shiocton!
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