Ross House Coffee and Roastery, housed in the historic building on Ross Street, will open up a second location on July 22. The new location will be located in the lobby of the 320 West Mag apartment complex near Chick-fil-A.
Toni Holt, owner of Ross House, said that she never originally planned on opening a second location.
“Truthfully, I only wanted Ross House, just the one,” Holt said. “We had no future plans of opening, but when someone asks you to be next door to a Chick-fil-A with 700 kids above you, it's hard to say no — so we thought it was a good move.”
In 2016, the 106-year-old property was nearly destroyed after the previous renters left. Holt saw this building as an opportunity for the community and decided to renovate the home and turn it into Ross House Coffee and Roastery, which opened in August 2016.
Holt recognized the historic charm of the original Ross House location and said the second location will appeal more toward students living in the apartment complex.
“It's actually all bright colors, yellows, greens, blues and oranges,” Holt said. “It's kind of a retro feel in a way. It's all velvet couches and chairs, and so it's not at all like Ross House."
She did want to preserve some of the original look of the Ross House, so Holt said she brought along a few older pieces to the new location.
Holt said that the vision for the second location was heavily based on the design of the apartment building it will be located in.
“The reason we did it differently is our shop opens up to the lobby of the apartment complex at 320 West Mag,” Holt said.
In the lobby, there's a large seating area with stadium seating and big screen TVs, Holt said, which is different than the layout of the original location, so she followed the lead of the people who owned the property when designing their new location.
"They kind of helped us design it," Holt said. "And they wanted to coordinate with their apartment complex.”
The hours of the second location will be the same as the original Ross House Coffee, from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. and will be closed on Sundays.
Holt said she has been approached with other offers in expanding the business to other locations but has no concrete plans for the future.
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