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Kelly May, Coldwater, prepares a drink for a drive-thru customer at Rooster Joe Coffee in Coldwater on Wednesday afternoon.
VERSAILLES - The best of both worlds is soon coming to Versailles - a joint effort to allow area residents to shop and eat local.
Made Apparel, a store with apparel and vendor goods, and Rooster Joe, a coffee shop, announced in March on Facebook a joint venture in which the two businesses will each open their second locations in a combined space.
Located at 39 S. Center St., Versailles, the Celina and Coldwater shops will operate under one roof, albeit existing separately.
"We want it to feel like one cohesive business when we are up and functioning," Brooke Bader, Made Apparel co-owner, said. "We want people to come in and feel like they can shop, they can get a coffee while they shop. It's not supposed to be this separate feeling. We're working really well together on how to make it cohesive, but also allow the coffee shop to have a cozy feeling so it doesn't feel like someone (is) shopping right next to them, too."
The opportunity was purely happenstance, Bader said - a sentiment echoed by Rooster Joe co-owner Joe McClurg.
For several years, Made customers mentioned wanting a second location. It wasn't until a building owner reached out to Bader and her husband, Braelen, about the opportunity that the venture felt plausible.
Made Apparel's current location is at 216 W. Fayette St. in Celina. The popular boutique will expand alongside Rooster Joe Coffee & Co. to 39 S. Center St. in Versailles where they will operate under one roof.
"I had her just send me some pictures of what she had available just for fun," Bader said. "We always considered if we would go somewhere, it would be more south, so when she sent us pictures of the buildings that she had available, it stopped me in my tracks because the building looks so much like our current building with the roofline, the color of the building, the concrete floor in there. It just had like the bones of Made already."
While chatting, Bader joked that a coffee shop would be the missing piece since the space is big.
Coincidentally, the building owner is friends with McClurg and his wife, Michelle, and they at one point had looked at the same building, which was a former fire station in Versailles.
"A couple of years ago, he (the building owner) acquired this building, and he was looking for tenants, and he asked us if we wanted to put a coffee shop over there," McClurg said. "So we went and looked at it, and we just decided it was just too big a building for just us."
Bader called McClurg and gauged interest in the venture.
"It was such a coincidence that both of us had this interest in the building," Bader said. "For them, we were the missing piece for them, and for us, it almost gave us that 'this felt right' kind of feeling in that excitement to go in with them on this new venture too."
Rooster Joe Coffee & Co. is located at 300 W. Sycamore St. in Coldwater. The popular coffee shop will expand alongside Made Apparel to 39 S. Center St. in Versailles where they will operate under one roof.
McClurg said customers had also approached him and his wife about a second location through the years.
"We always took it as a compliment, but we never seriously looked into any of them until this one came around and this opportunity presented itself," he said. "It just seems to fit and click really well."
Made opened in December 2021 and Rooster Joe opened in January 2020. Over the years, the business owners have fostered their relationship.
"We've always partnered with Rooster Joe over the years, whether it was making apparel for them or my husband, who owns Night Owl Studio, always did custom ceramic mugs for them," Bader said. "We've always had a good, working relationship with them already. They're wonderful people."
"I just think that Brooke and Braelen are going to be really fun to work with," McClurg echoed. "We just seem to gel really well."
Made Apparel created merchandise for Rooster Joe, and the Made store in Celina has a mini-fridge vendor station with "Joe's To Go" iced coffees.
The former fire station at 39 S. Center St. in Versailles will soon be the home of the second locations of Made Apparel, based in Celina, and Rooster Joe Coffee & Co., based in Coldwater.
The old firehouse in Versailles is about half to three-fourths the size of the Celina Made location, Bader said. Design sketches reveal the business will have separate entrances, with an open storefront for Made and a separate area for Rooster Joe, which will have seating to serve as a community gathering space. The coffee shop will seat 28 people.
"There will be a wall between us, and then there'll be a big archway that you can walk amongst from one business to the other," McClurg said, explaining the design flow. "We're hoping that we will feed off of each other. You come in for some apparel, and then you come over and get a cup of coffee. Or as you get a cup of coffee and as you're walking back out, you go over and buy a sweatshirt or a T-shirt or something."
The Rooster Joe side will also have a drive-thru.
"There's a side door that people can go in and out of for coffee, even though the shopping part may not open until a little bit later in the morning," Bader said. "It'll still function under one roof, but (we're) kind of designing the logistics where it still makes sense to function separately too, as needed. What's nice about the building is that there are multiple doors. There will be a side door for Rooster Joe in the mornings that people can go in and out."
Although some details are still loose, like specific hours, Bader and McClurg hope to open the location by late summer or early fall.
Bader and McClurg want the public to view the Versailles building as a true second location for each of their businesses that carries products specific to the area.
For example, Made will carry spirit wear for four or five nearby schools, including Russia, Fort Loramie and Versailles.
The Celina location carries gear for Marion Local, New Bremen, New Knoxville, Coldwater, St. Henry, St. Marys, Celina, Fort Recovery, Parkway and Minster. Each year before school starts, Made offers pre-orders for specific schools, and Versailles was always a top seller, Bader said.
"They've kind of proven their support, proven how much they want our apparel, too," she said. I feel like that has made us feel really confident choosing to go into that area, knowing that they are fully in support of us and they know us and our brand really well. I'm excited to go into the area and get to know people too."
Other aspects of the store include seasonal apparel, the shop's usual vendors, including Nite Owl stoneware, Dax+Ivy, and Olive You Bow Co. Bader said she also wants to feature Versailles-specific vendors.
"We want to make sure no matter what location someone goes to, they are able to find the same goods that they could find in Celina," she said. "Again, maybe a little bit different with some Versailles makers, but most of the apparel at least will stay the same."
Made's Celina location sells clothing featuring schools like Celina, St. Marys, Coldwater and more. Made's second location in Versailles will carry spirit wear for schools like Russia, Fort Loramie and Versailles.
McClurg said Rooster Joe wants to prioritize serving their same, great products. It will still get its espresso from Deeper Roots in Cincinnati and milk from Indian Creek Creamery in De Graff.
Similarly, Rooster Joe will partner with Versailles bakeries to offer pastries and breakfast items.
Because the coffee shop will not have a kitchen, the food preparation, like the salads, will be done in Coldwater and brought over.
"It will kind of be a mix of what we're doing here and what is local to Versailles," McClurg said.
Although demolition has started, Bader said she wants to keep as much of the original architecture of the old fire station as she can to pay homage to the area.
"That building actually used to be the old firehouse, so there's just a lot of history with it," she said. "Within the demo, I loved walking in and seeing the oil stains on the concrete floor where the fire trucks used to sit. The original ceiling is still up there, so I feel like I'm trying hard to kind of keep a lot of that character, because I love that stuff."
McClurg said he is especially excited to expand because he has family in Versailles and has many childhood memories there. Both of his parents graduated from Versailles High School.
"The community over there feels almost home to me, as well," he said.
In the meantime, Made Apparel is located at 216 W. Fayette St., Celina, and Rooster Joe is located at 300 W. Sycamore St., Coldwater.
