May 16th, 2010 admin Posted in sandusky 13 Comments »

New Chapter: Sandusky, Take III

Since Erika and I are both from Sandusky, Ohio it has always been “home”. Between us, we’ve lived in Toledo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. We’ve always had our families in Sandusky to come back to visit. Sandusky is a beautiful lakefront city with its own Bay, Cedar Point, islands and indoor water parks. There are some really good things going on in the city and downtown is picking up steam thanks to a handfull of local restaurants, bars and bakeries. Zinc Brasserie, CRUSH Wine Bar, Water Street Bar & Grille, Mr. Smith’s Coffee Shop, City Bake Shop and Wendy Kromer Confections. There are also some establishments that have been down there for many years; The Sandusky Yacht Club, The Maritime Museum, The Merry-Go-Round Museum, The Sandusky State Theatre, Battery Park and other marinas.

A lot of these places are combining their efforts through the Sandusky Main Street Association.

All of these goings on have us optimistic about Sandusky. After leaving to go to college, we attempted to move back there once. It was not the right time. Ideas of the younger generations were being shot down left and right. We had the idea of opening our own business then, but put the idea on hold due to lack of support for other similar businesses. Like I said, it was not the right time. We only lasted in Sandusky a year before moving to our current home in South Euclid, Ohio.

After five years in Cleveland, it seems that things have slowly began to change in Sandusky. The momentum that has been building downtown has led us to believe that this is the right time to begin our own business.

In a previous post I mentioned how Erika’s Grandmother had operated the Tea Rose Tea Room in Downtown Sandusky (it was actually the first website that I ever designed, beautiful, eh?). They still own the Victorian home and the home and lot on each side of the Tea Room. Since Grandma’s recent sickness that lead to her passing away a couple of weekes ago, Grandpa has been faced with a lot of questions regarding the properties and their future. So after many discussions with Grandma and Grandpa, Erika, along side her sister, Brittany who currently lives in Chicago, are going to re-open the Tea Room and expand upon the once thriving business. Traditional high tea Monday through Friday from 3 -5pm with tea leaf readings following. There are some other ideas floating around regarding the business as well but have yet to be explored. Erika and Brittany spent many years working for Grandma and picking up the craft and everyone that we have told of  the idea to re-open the Tea Room has given us positive feedback. Grandma had created a large clientele through her 15+ years of operating the Tea Room, so it would be wonderful to continue what she had built.

I am going to continue with my current position at Epstein Design Partners in Cleveland and commute as needed. The kids love the idea of moving closer to family. We love Cleveland, we will defintely be back often. The museums, restaurants and nightlife are enough to bring us back but we also have an ever expanding group of friends that we do not plan on abandoning.

We will have more details as far as the move and Tea Room opening soon. There is a lot to do to open up but we have already begun the process of getting the kids enrolled in school for the Fall. This is the next chapter of our lives and we are excited to embark upon it.