The Robinson-Schwenn Building is located at 221 High St. next to Journal Square and shares a front door with Miami Hamilton Downtown.
Liz Snyder, who opened Kofenya in downtown Hamilton three years ago, said the volume of business wasn’t enough to sustain operations, so she decided to concentrate more on her primary Oxford location, which has been open for nine years.
Cannon said he has known for a few months that the space would be available and has been making plans to secure funding and create a menu, but the vacancy has occurred earlier than he anticipated.
“We were planning to go in at the end of April, so a lot of things are happening kind of backward,” he said. “Since they’re leaving early, we may be able to push the time frame up.”
He said he wants to get some new equipment and add a counter going across the large windows facing High Street. He also plans to keep later hours than Kofenya to mirror his Main Street location.
“The menu is going to be a little different” from the menu at the Main Street location, he said, “with some things geared toward a dinner crowd.”
He also said he wants to create a lunch menu geared toward the people who work downtown and only get a 30-minute lunch break.
Because they will be catering to different crowds, Cannon doesn’t believe that he’ll be competing against himself, so he will operate both locations and call the High Street store “True West Coffee Downtown.”
Main Street “is our hub shop, so we want the other shop to be an extension of what we’re doing, but make it a little bit different so that both shops can grow.
“The opportunity was just too good to pass up,” he said. “We’ve learned a lot in the last year and five months since we’ve been open.”
Building manager Chad Riegert, however, said that he hopes to be able to fill the gap until True West can be fully operational.
While Kofenya is not open for business, they are in the process of cleaning up and moving equipment out. As soon as that process is complete, Riegert said he will discuss stop-gap options with Cannon or perhaps another party to make sure people have a place to get their morning coffee downtown.
“We don’t want to have the corner dark for too long,” he said.
He said he hoped to have a solution by the end of the week.
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