Ashley Mannier, founder of the Jamestown Café, works at the Honda plant and moved to Jamestown just over two years ago after completing her master’s degree. The Jamestown Café opened in September 2025.
Menu highlights include paninis, biscuits and gravy, baked goods, ice cream, a full coffee and tea bar. Much of the menu is sourced as locally as possible, Mannier said, with village-made sourdough and baked goods, milk from Swallow Hill Dairy, and ice cream from Youngs Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs.
Since opening, business has thrived, Mannier said.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“There was a line around the building both days of the (village’s fall) festival, and that was really nice. But then it was like, ‘Is this going to be sustainable? And it’s been the same basically since we’ve opened, we’ve compiled quite the group of regulars, which is really nice,” she said.
Mannier and two of her brothers bought the historic building at 9 West Washington Street in December 2024. Originally constructed in 1874, it needed a significant amount of renovation, smelling of “mold and bad decisions,” Mannier said. Experienced house flippers, Mannier and her family got to work turning it into a community hub, fixing it up, and even building the tables and coffee bar.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“There are several very pretty historic buildings that are kind of untouched down here right now,” she said. “The concept was to grab one of them, renovate it — not to be anything abstract or like super modern, but to be a reflection of what Jamestown already was, which I hope that we did that service.”
Sugary Rush Delights, started by Destiny Storer, specializes in freeze-dried candy, energy drinks, custom T-shirts and other merchandise. Storer opened the candy store in July.
“I’ve always done T-shirts and tumblers for about four years at home,” she said. “We bought out a freeze-dried candy business and an energy drink business, and then we kind of just combined them all together.”
Sugary Rush Delights originally opened in the former DJ’s Dojo on East Second Street in Xenia. Storer has since converted that location into an event venue and moved the candy store to South Limestone Street in Jamestown.
“It’s definitely getting better downtown with having more businesses down there,” she said. “I still have people that are like, ‘I didn’t even know there were stores down there.’ So I said, ‘Well, there’s a lot of things happening down there.’"
Next door to the cafe, the boutique New and Known, founded by Shaylla Smith, opened in August.
As a mother of five, opening the boutique was a venture Smith said she has always wanted to do.
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
“My biggest thing was I wanted it to be something that everybody could afford. Growing up, there were times that we struggled and kids can be mean. And so when you don’t have all the cool things that you can’t afford it, that sucks. So that was something that I was keeping in mind when I opened this,” she said.
New and Known specializes in two things: local crafts and vendors — including jewelry, clothing, soaps and candles — as well as secondhand clothing items for kids and adults.
The goal is creating a welcoming, small-town experience where customers feel appreciated and remembered, Smith said.
“I just have always had the mindset of the more you pour into your community, the more your community will pour into you,” she said. “So I wanted all my vendors to be local. It affects everybody.”
Credit: Bryant Billing
Credit: Bryant Billing
Later this month, Smith said she is working on turning a section of the store into a play area for young kids to be in while their parents do their shopping.
After growing up in Fairborn, Smith moved to Jamestown in 2022 and said the older generation in the village tells stories of when Jamestown was a vibrant rural town.
“There have been a lot of older people that come into the store that are like, ‘I had no idea that this was here.’ And I think it’s good for Jamestown,” she said. “They tell you stories of when they were younger, you couldn’t find parking spots downtown ... and I think that this and the cafe and the plants will hopefully get us back to that.”
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