New coffee shop wants to be ‘door to the community’
Located inside The Amish Door Market in Wilmot, The Corner Cup coffee shop gleams with new features including leather couches and modern Italian espresso machines, along with coffee and other drinks.
Buildings are mysterious in that they house a complex mix of people and things over the years. Nestled in the southwest corner of Stark County, just outside the Holmes and Tuscarawas county lines, sits The Corner Cup coffee shop. Located inside The Amish Door Market and on the corner of the Amish Door Village property, it gleams with new features including leather couches and modern Italian espresso machines, along with coffee and other drinks.
“We are a door to this community,” shop manager Selena Herrera said.
A local and native to Holmes County, she knows people are drawn here for the Amish experience but wants to represent a variety of different people.
“We have a beautiful campus here at Amish Door Village with Amish-style cooking, but the coffee shop is a fresh, casual space, neutral, not traditional, with a modern flair,” she said. “Maybe a break from the norm, a different atmosphere, can be found here for locals and tourists alike. We are a mix of Amish and English here, a conjoined community, and maybe the coffee shop can be a visual representation of that: different items, different foods.”
Katy Gill, the marketing coordinator at the village, said the building once housed the original Amish Door Restaurant. It had 35-40 seats, and once it outgrew the building, it was turned into the market that sold bulk foods and gifts.
Nettie Hostetler, manager of the market, loves the newly designed space that co-mingles gently with the popular deli and bulk food market. “We had a flood in this part of the market 18 months ago. It was devastating,” she said. “The water poured from a burst pipe, ceilings crashed, and here we were with brooms trying to sweep out the water as it kept coming and coming.”
New things can transform chaos, eventually. “This part of the market was retail space,” Hostetler said, “and it was hard to lose it.”
It sat empty for quite a while until the idea to open a coffee shop was brainstormed during the remodel process.
“We wanted to give people coming to The Amish Door something else,” Gill said, “something more than just the restaurant, as well as a different menu.”
“With the coffee shop now open, it feels good to spread our wings and work together to share the space,” Hostetler said.
The market has an upstairs loft that features gifts and items made by local artists.
The menu at the coffee shop not only boasts coffees like Café Miel and White Lion, but also features a variety of sandwiches and wraps, along with fresh-baked pastries.
“The bread used in our sandwiches comes from our own bakery,” Gill said. “We are separate yet pulling from each other.”
Tourists who frequent the restaurant, along with locals seeking new choices, will want to check out the sweet potato wrap (Nettie’s favorite) or the Wilmonster sandwich.
Herrera is grateful for the coffee community that has grown, helping her to sharpen her own skills, like managing her own equipment. She wants to learn more about the journey the coffee beans take to arrive in her coffee shop. The local roastery where The Corner Cup gets their beans is Red Mug Coffee Company, located in nearby Mount Hope.
“You can mask the flavor of coffee with syrups, but we want the quality to start at the foundation,” she said. “We want to know the country the beans are grown in, how far they’ve traveled, and respect that journey.”
Ensuring the success of The Corner Cup has been a group effort from the start. As a team they’ve pulled the frazzled ends together to form a cohesive vision for the shop. “We represent a larger team, and we could not have done it without any of them,” Herrera said.
“Opening during a pandemic was a leap of faith,” Gill said. “But what could it hurt? We were ready for this space to be open. It was exciting for us and hopefully for the community.”
There will be upcoming outdoor harvest festivals at the village in the coming weeks with food and artisan vendors. “And a goal we’re working toward? A drive-thru for the coffee shop,” Gill said, “not yet, but some day.”
The coffee shop is open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is located at 1108 Winesburg St., Wilmot. Masks are required upon entry, and the dining room is open with tables properly spaced to allow for social distancing.