Business Posts - Early 2023

DutchCrafters: 20 years strong

Eclipse Over Roswell promotes spiritual healing for open minds

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Some people have called Eclipse Over Roswell looking for manipulative spells, like one that could return a lost love. But co-owner Michael Jerome said staff stays “on the light side.”

“We have people that will call in … and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we can’t do that,’” Jerome said.

Eclipse Over Roswell, on South Atlanta Street, is a metaphysical shop. Visitors are hit with a smell of incense as they enter and an inventory of items intended for spiritual growth and healing.

Even if the spell did work, Jerome said it would create a conflict in the brain.

“They’re gonna go crazy,” he said. “It’s never gonna work out.”

Rather than playing with someone else’s free will, co-owner Azalea Johns said staff is focused on internal light and connecting it to source energy.

Metaphysical tools

Crystals are a big portion of the store’s stock, their meanings and purpose printed on cards next to each container. There’s also a collection of tarot decks, colored candles, herbs and jewelry.

Through a door behind the retail space,

Jerome and Johns were situated in the “living room.” This is where meditations are held, like ones for the New Moon. To the right of the living room, Psychic Fairs are held on the second and fourth Saturday. Several tables were lined up.

Johns, also a house practitioner, regularly leads the meditative sessions where visitors gather round and encourage one another.

“Our New Moon Meditation is all about setting new intentions. It’s new beginnings. The moon is at its darkest point then,” Johns said. “It’s just going to grow. Light is just going to start to shine all the way up to the full moon.”

She also hosts tarot classes on most Sundays, referred to as “Sunday school.”

The business has a few house practitioners, including Mahogany Rose, the self-described “herb lady” who was in-store April 25. But there’s also about a dozen guest practitioners who come in from time to time with other specialties, like TJ Lecroy, a longtime intuitive reader, also at the front counter.

Farther back, there’s a smaller room for energy healing, featuring a bed and a poster outlining the chakras. Tarot, numerology and astrology readings are also performed there.

Jerome and Johns plan to expand the business into a studio in the same shopping center, which will be dedicated to events and classes. Current back rooms would become a place for more retail. They had spoken to an architect earlier that day.

New territory

Jerome was more of a skeptic before he took ownership of the business six months after it opened in May 2018. A veteran of the restaurant business, he would sometimes watch videos from a medium named John Edward, but that was his only experience.

When he first entered the venture, Jerome dove into the crystals and minerals for their geological aspects.

“As far as metaphysical properties, I kind of passed that off,” Jerome said.

Now, every day when gets home, he brushes himself with a rod of Selenite, a crystal known for its ability to cleanse energy.

“I get a chill just every time,” Jerome said. “That first time, I was like, ‘Wow, this is real.’”

He also regularly uses diffusing oils for different intentions, some for prosperity.

Meanwhile, Johns, who joined the business in July 2019, has had a longtime fascination with astrology and crystals. Tarot came later. But it wasn’t until after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 that she began to listen to the

messages she had been receiving.

Johns has her own daily practice, like quiet time in the morning. She puts on her “protection” for the day by setting an intention and sometimes uses cards as a guide. Johns might pull an Oracle card, which often has a word, something to focus on. Then, she asks herself about that intention at night with the aid of tarot.

Crystals have a daily use for Johns, in her pockets and covering her wrists. Her favorites rotate, but right now, they’re lepidolite for stress and anxiety, angelite, pink calcite and strawberry quartz.

Jerome reminded Johns that she also loves Blue Goldstone, a man-made stone of glass and cobalt infused with copper particles. Online articles ascribe a variety of meanings to Blue Goldstone, like confidence and ambition, good luck.

A ‘spiritual team’

An anatomy and physiology college instructor for nearly 20 years, Johns uses her scientific knowledge of the body to connect it to the spiritual. Chakras aren’t just “ethereal” concepts, she said.

“There are real structures in your body. There’s nerve plexuses, there’s endocrine glands that are coordinated or associated with those different energy centers,” Johns said.

She’s a certified Reiki instructor, but she most often practices tarot.

“It’s interesting to see the energy that comes through when you’re in session with someone,” Johns said.

To begin a session, Johns connects what she calls a “spiritual team” — all beings of love and light, or guardian angels. The team could be ancestors, she said, or loved ones who have passed over.

“It’s about tapping into that center of love and hope and faith, and the energy that brings you peace and comfort,” Johns said.

Religion can be part of the session, Johns said, though some have come into the store under the impression that offerings are antithetical to religion.

“People come in here and tell us straight out, ‘You guys are demons,’” Jerome said.

But Jerome shared that metaphysical practices often incorporate religion. He named Judaism and Qabalah, a variety of Jewish mysticism, as well as Christianity as examples.

Johns has her own approach.

“If someone is skeptical, I would just say — be open and receptive to all good, and then see what happens. Listen to the messages that you may be getting, and trust that,” Johns said. “Follow that, and see how that feels. See how it feels in your physical body.”

PHOTO BY AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA; ILLUSTRATION BY DIONNA WILLIAMS/APPEN MEDIA Opened in 2018, Eclipse Over Roswell is owned by Michael Jerome and Azalea Johns. The business offers a stock of metaphysical items, like crystals, candles and tarot cards, as well as energy healing, card, astrology and numerology readings and reflexology work.

Cumming’s Kapow Comics builds one-stop nerd shop

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — While comic book and hobby shops have sprung up in Metro Atlanta in recent years, Kapow Comics focuses on the interests of its customers in a unique way.

“Atlanta area is probably the mecca of the nerd world,” store owner Andy Diehl said. “And if you do research and look it up, you’ll see how many stores fail, open and closed, that are like this ... And at the end of the day, it’s the ones who take care of their customers that keep their stores open.”

After a career in retail, Diehl said he realized he disliked working for others, which spurred his decision to expand his collection from the home into his own business.

Kapow, located in the Westlake Terrace plaza off Lake Center Parkway in Cumming, offers comic books, manga, figurines and an open space for trading card and tabletop games.

Beyond its official offerings, the shop serves as a place of community and fun for hobbyists and collectors.

“Everybody’s welcome to come here,” Diehl said. “Everybody, we don’t care. There’s no discrimination, there’s no judgment, there’s nothing.”

A niche offering

Customers are greeted with packed shelves of figures, comic books and graphic novels. To the right of the main sales floor is a sprawling space dedicated to a Pokémon league, tabletop games and an upcoming corner for retro video games.

Diehl said he targeted comic books when he opened the shop, and the neighboring expansion was added for games to maintain a quiet reading and browsing space.

Each week, Kapow hosts Dungeons and Dragons, Werewolf and Warhammer games. The first Sunday of the month is reserved for painting and building miniatures, and Tuesdays and Wednesdays mark comic book release days.

Diehl said the shop’s busiest days are Saturdays, which are dedicated to its Pokémon league of over 100 members.

“It is whole families coming in here, mom, dad, their kids, their nephews,” Diehl said. “They’ve created a community to themselves to come in here and play Pokémon … It’s not like any Pokémon league anybody goes to.”

Diehl said Kapow does not charge for its card and tabletop games as much as other stores in the industry, and the shop aims for price to not be an obstacle to participation.

Adults are asked to purchase a $5 store gift card to play Dungeons and

Dragons, and Magic the Gathering Commander players aged 13 and older contribute $5 to a prize pool.

“We just prefer you to come in and have a good time,” Diehl said.

The Kapow

comeback

When Kapow opened in 2012, Diehl said he had less than $200 in the cash register and $1 in the store bank account.

“It was kind of spooky,” Diehl said. “The store was packed full of product. I had $172 in the cash register, and I said, ‘Well, we’ll see if this works.’ I

had zero working capital, and I was doing it by myself.”

The shop’s niche product offerings and loyal community kept the business growing. But in 2017, Diehl said a fire had destroyed $300,000 in inventory in the shop’s back room at a previous location.

After recouping losses from the fire, the shop closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Diehl said he had no intentions of reopening.

“Then we saw a void in the community that said they wanted the store here, somebody’s store, so I looked at it again,” Diehl said. “We started the same way again over here. We started off a little smaller space to see what the community would bear, and it was just huge.”

Moving forward, Diehl said he plans to dedicate the back wall of the shop to anime, manga and Japanese pop culture. He also hopes to expand the store’s selection of T-shirts.

Now, the shop has four employees, and its success has enabled Diehl to open its dedicated space for games.

“We’re trying to make this the onestop nerd shop,” Diehl said.

Kapow Comics is located in Suite 108 at 540 Lake Center Parkway in Cumming. The shop is open from 11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Andy Diehl owns Kapow Comics on Lake Center Parkway in Cumming. Diehl, who co-owns the shop with his wife, departed a career in retail to pursue his passions in the business.

A Batman figure adorns a table of comic books at Kapow Comics April 19. Owner Andy Diehl said he hopes for the Cumming business to be a “one-stop nerd shop.”

A FEAST FOR THE SENSES

Ethiopiques Cafe in Johns Creek cooks up culinary masterpieces

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — The first thing you’ll notice when visiting Ethiopiques Café and Restaurant in Johns Creek is the amazing aroma of grilling meats and exotic spices.

The second thing you’ll notice is how much fun patrons are having sharing communal dishes of lovingly prepared traditional Ethiopian dishes. Opened in 2020 by three friends, Liza Abebe, Amy Asegidew and Biruk Demeselasie, Ethiopiques Café and Restaurant has quickly become a community staple for interesting ethnic and traditional foods that serve any taste preferences with a wide variety of vegan, vegetarian and grilled meat dishes.

Abebe said the Ethiopiques Café, located on State Bridge Road, was a longtime dream for the three friends, who for years had to travel up to an hour from their homes to find a good Ethiopian restaurant.

“We’ve been talking about opening a restaurant for like, almost 10 years,” Abebe said.

But when things finally came together for the partners and the restaurant was within their grasp, the COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head and made everything more complicated for their plans. The partners were forced to close down and reopen in different capacities several times during the first year of business.

But throughout that hard time, the partners said they got overwhelming support from the Johns Creek community, which kept them going and in business.

“If it wasn’t for the Johns Creek community, we wouldn’t be here,” she said.

For the uninitiated, Abebe said Ethiopian food is very similar to Indian and Mediterranean cuisine, only with a much different palette of spices and a serving style that encourages community, sharing and

togetherness, with couples, friends and families all eating off of the same platter, using a spongy, sourdough flatbread called Injera to scoop and eat dishes.

Also common to Ethiopian cuisine is a spice mixture called Berbere, which mixes chili peppers garlic ginger. Nearly all their dishes have this spice mixture as a starting point.

“We use some spices that are very different, and yes, it’s spicy, but it’s more flavorful spicy than, ‘I’m dying spicy,’” she said.

Because Ethiopia is such a large and diverse country, there is a wide variety of dishes served around the country.

“Ethiopian cuisine is good for everyone,” she said. “You could be a vegan, vegetarian or meat lover because we fast 265 days out of the year.”

The most popular dishes at the Ethiopiques Café are the vegetarian platter, which offers a mixture of traditional Ethiopian dishes eaten

with injera, and the doro wat, an Ethiopian chicken stew with a rich smoky flavor, tender chicken drumsticks and a hardboiled egg.

“It’s like our national dish,” she said of the Doro Wat.

Another major part of Ethiopian culinary culture is centered around coffee, which shouldn’t be a surprise because the East African country is where coffee, as we know it today, was first invented.

Each Sunday from noon-3 p.m., Ethiopiques Café serves a traditional coffee ceremony to its guests, roasting green coffee beans in the traditional style and three rounds of brewing that produce different strengths of coffee.

“It’s a whole ceremony,” she said.

You can visit Ethiopiques Café and Restaurant from Tuesday to Sunday, 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., at 11130 State Bridge Road in Johns Creek. For a look at their menu and more information about their food, visit them on Facebook or at ethiopiquescafe.com.

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA Ethiopiques Café and Restaurant co-owner Liza Abebe toasts with a glass of house-made Ethiopian honey wine April 11.

Mother-daughter café brings Vietnamese flavors to Alpharetta

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. —Hanh Nguyen filled a decades-long dream when she opened July Moon Bakery and Café at the Maxwell in Alpharetta in 2022 — and she did it with her daughter by her side.

The bakery and café named in honor of Nguyen’s daughters, offers Vietnamese iced coffees, boba teas, bánh mìs and Asian pastries. She opened July Moon in 2022, but her dream stretched back much further.

Nguyen is a first-generation Vietnamese immigrant born in a Malaysian refugee camp, where she said she “should have died but didn’t.” Her mother made Vietnamese iced coffee to make a living and Nguyen often had to help.

“I used to crush ice for my mom, it’s not an easy task for a child,” Nguyen said.

After a tumultuous childhood, Nguyen, her mother and siblings ran away from her abusive father and spent two years in a homeless shelter. Nguyen said she had “humble beginnings” but eventually made it to college, and later Seattle, Washington, where she began her career in the IT industry.

“I might look polished, like I had it all together, but it’s been a long journey, a lot of sacrifices and heartaches,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen found success in the industry, working for various Fortune 500 companies. But the memories of making coffee with her mom never disappeared. Nguyen said her time in Seattle, a coffee destination and the origin of Starbucks turned her into a “bit of a coffee snob.”

She had wanted to open a business in Seattle, but the market was oversaturated with boba and coffee offerings. It wasn’t until Nguyen moved to Alpharetta for a job promotion that she saw an opportunity to bring her business concept to life.

Her eldest daughter, 11-yearold Charlie, helped push Nguyen to pursue her dream. During a visit to a gourmet bakery years ago, Nguyen caught Charlie staring at the baristas. She told Charlie that if she wanted,

she could work at a coffee shop one day.

“I’m not going to work here, I’m going to own my own bakery,” Charlie said.

Charlie’s response inspired Nguyen to pursue the café, both for herself and to inspire her daughter. Nguyen had no business ownership experience, little capital and faced a long journey to creating July Moon, but she was determined to build a business from the ground up.

She also knew Charlie would be integral to July Moon’s success. It would be a mother-daughter project in every aspect. Charlie is officially a cofounder of July Moon, and Nguyen’s younger daughter Colette is “quickly becoming more instrumental” in the business by putting stickers on the cups and helping clean the bathrooms.

“(Charlie) has been in all the major meetings, like loan signing, architectural rating floor plan design,” Nguyen said.

Charlie called the meetings “boring,” but her mother said Charlie’s candor and creativity helped bring July Moon to where it is now.

Charlie helps create new drink recipes for the business, which she jots down during development. During an April 6 interview, she concocted an ombre drink with “everything boba,” mango sparkling water, mango-rose tea and strawberry-kiwi tea.

The café has a limited food menu due to its small kitchen, but Nguyen’s focus is on the drinks. She sources coffee beans from local business Boarding Pass Coffee and gets tea from Atlanta-based business Just Add Honey. She also makes organic and gluten-free drink syrups from scratch.

Her taro tea, a popular boba drink made from a purple root vegetable, is made from actual taro rather than the powder used in many other boba shops. It’s more work to cut up and boil the vegetables, but for Nguyen it’s essential.

“It’s these little things that people don’t see,” Nguyen said.

Every aspect of the business is “highly intentional,” Nguyen said, from the accessible seating to the drinkmaking methods.

“There’s meaning behind everything I do,” Nguyen said.

Hanh

Hanh Nguyen prepares a traditional Vietnamese iced coffee at July Moon Bakery and Café April 6. The coffee is sweetened with condensed milk, and Nguyen serves it with pellet ice reminiscent of her mother’s recipes.

She said her pellet ice machine is a reference to her childhood spent crushing ice for her mother’s Vietnamese iced coffee. The ice is the “best way to drink” Vietnamese coffee.

Nguyen carries her intention into the rest of the businesses, where she focuses on mentorship and expansion

opportunities. She hosts networking events for women in business, acts as a mentor for her young employees and spotlights small businesses.

“Charlie and I wanted to launch July Moon to be a safe, fun community space for people,” Nguyen said.

DELANEY TARR/APPEN MEDIA

Nguyen and her daughter, Charlie Crose work together to bring the vision of July Moon Bakery and Café, an Asian coffee shop and bakery concept to life.

DELANEY TARR/APPEN MEDIA

Samad Grill elevates food with love and a little garlic

tend to have.

“When it’s busy, it has a life of its own,” Lesley said. “The energy is great in here. Some of our customers have become friends with each other.”

Underneath chalk board menus, several potted pothos plants sit on the ordering counter, their tendrils hanging off the side. Lesley said Lebanon is rich with gorgeous fruit trees, making the greenery an appropriate touch.

Other decorations are minimal, save around 10 quirky clocks on the back wall with the customer-created chalk designs on the bottom half. The black paint was a contentious design element, Lesley said, but it grew on her husband.

“It’s the small victories in marriage,” she said, on her way to wipe down tables.

all the subsidized school breakfasts and lunches would be closed, even for those facing food insecurity. Samad Grill saw up to 400 families a day over the course of 18 months, a line wrapping around the corner of the building.

“This area is the haves and the havenots,” Lesley said.

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — Jamal Samad prides himself on the simplicity of the food at his restaurant, Samad Mediterranean Grill and Market. But simple isn’t easy, he said, like most people think.

“The harder thing is to keep things simple and tasty, and make it healthy,” said Jamal, with a thick Lebanese accent.

Jamal said the kitchen staff, including himself, doesn’t compromise or cut corners. Everything at Samad Grill is made with fresh ingredients. And, everything – except the gyro meat, which is Halal, and pita bread – is made from scratch.

His wife of 28 years, Lesley Samad, sitting beside him in a small, cozy booth by the door, interjected to say the food is still rather complex and layered.

“I will tell you, I’ve never met a stranger,” Lesley said at one point, laughing. “He’s much more quiet than I am.”

Lesley offered an American perspective on the Lebanon way of Mediterranean cuisine. She said it tends to be more “elevated,” and it has more attitude, anchored in pride. She also said Lebanese food is more herb- and garlic-heavy.

“There’s a lot of love in the food,” Jamal added. “Love is an important ingredient.”

The touch

Jamal opened the restaurant in 2012. After receiving his master’s degree in France, he came to the states to get his Ph.D. in physics in 1992, but marriage and family happened.

“I use a formula here and there,” he said jokingly.

He spent years working in kitchens

before turning to the hard sciences. But he also grew up with his mother’s and grandmother’s cooking in Lebanon. While he has tried to duplicate it, he said it’s not possible.

Lesley said the same goes for Jamal’s cooking.

“I will make things, and it will still taste really, really good — still not his,” she said. “It’s a touch.”

People ask Jamal all the time for his recipes and the ingredients he uses. He freely gives them away, knowing the real secret is balance.

Those queries are partly the reason for the market. In the back corner of the restaurant, Jamal sells items he uses in his own cooking. There’s a couple of aisles stocked with mostly exported goods with labels in other languages — herbs and spices, jams, desserts, coffee, other items.

Many countries are represented in the market, Lesley said. In addition to foods from Lebanon, the shelves boast products from Croatia, Turkey, Greece and Egypt.

“A lot of people comment — they’ll say, ‘I haven’t seen this since I was a little kid,’” she said.

An ethos

Food is the star of the show at Samad Grill. Jamal once spent thousands on renovations, but the space remains unpretentious like the Styrofoam foodware.

Diner-style tables are spread throughout on unpolished floors, eaten away with time. Ketchup bottles along with salt and pepper shakers are at the ends.

Regular customers have advised Jamal not to change anything, lending to a down-to-earth personality and a certain ambience that restaurant hidden gems

Lesley handles the front of the house, and Jamal stays in the kitchen with other staff. Their daughters help at the business, too. Once the doors opened and customers began trickling in March 29, their daughter Maya arrived.

Community-based eats

Spread out on several Styrofoam plates, Lesley provided a bit of everything. On one, there was an array of salads — chickpea, spinach, cabbage, beet and pasta salads with various bases seasoned with fresh herbs and garlic. There was also a thick lentil soup.

The falafel, each ball with a crisp coating and soft center, came with pita bread and an assortment of dips, including tahini and garlic sauce. While Jamal said the whole menu is his favorite, he highlighted the falafel as a top tier pick along with the kafta kabob.

Lesley brought over one of her favorites, too — the flash-fried cauliflower, seasoned with salt and coated in tahini dressing.

“People will say, ‘We got off the plane and came straight here,’” Lesley said. “And that is a huge compliment because there are only two places in the world I do that to.”

The Samads know most customers by name and still see some that have been coming since day 1. While the customer base in the first few years was primarily repeat patrons, the dynamic shifted with strong community support and word of mouth.

The restaurant also saw more light during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many restaurants, the pandemic impacted Samad Grill. Most of the money rolling in came in the form of take-out orders. But the space changed in a more exceptional way — it became a pop-up food pantry for Sandy Springs schools.

In March 2020, Lesley received a message from a PTO president who said

Lesley Samad provides a plate filled with a variety of salads, falafel, lentil soup and fried cauliflower. Lebanese food is known for its use of fresh herbs and garlic, she said.

PHOTOS BY AMBER PERRY/AMBER PERRY

Jamal and Lesley Samad, owners of Samad Mediterranean Grill and Market, sit at a booth inside their restaurant March 29. Opened in 2012, Samad Grill is located in a shopping center on Roswell Road.

Alpharetta Bee Company makes sweet deals

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Deborah Eves and Michael Buchanan bonded over a shared love of nature, but their passion for beekeeping and business started when they founded the Alpharetta Bee Company in 2021.

Buchanan and Eves started their backyard venture after a year of learning the ropes of beekeeping, and it first launched as The Sunny Honey Company.

“We started Sunny Honey Company, and we got into the Alpharetta Farmers Market, and we’re like wow, it was amazing how much people love honey,” Eves said. “Then the next year, which was last year before the farmers market started, we said, ‘Well, gosh, nobody realizes that we’re actually local Alpharetta beekeepers,’ so we changed our name to Alpharetta Bee Company.”

Eves and Buchanan feed, house and care for their Italian and Carniolan bees in their backyards on Pebble Trail. They also have hives at Buchanan’s cabin in Cleveland, where they produce their sourwood and mountain wildflower honey.

Buchanan said they learned best practices from a friend in Milton and from a neighbor in Cleveland with 35 years of beekeeping experience. The pair studied YouTube videos and purchased equipment in 2020, and the following year, they were ready to launch.

“It’s not something you can kind of stick your toe in the water about,” Buchanan said. “You’re either in it or you’re not.”

The process

Buchanan said much of the process is common sense, but it is also hard work.

He said it is important to feed the bees and keep them healthy for the period that they have no nectar, which is 60-70 percent of the year.

The two expect to have 12 or 13 hives in 2023, and Buchanan said one good hive can produce up to 70 pounds of honey.

“They’ve been around since the time of the dinosaurs, so they know what to do,” Buchanan said.

When the honey is ready to be harvested, Eves and Buchanan filter it from their extractor into containers. The honey is raw and never heated or pasteurized, they said, and nothing is added.

Eves also uses the beeswax from their hives in candles and lotion, which is made with coconut oil and shea butter.

Working as a duo, Eves said, allows them to bounce ideas off one another to find the best ways to run their business, and the bees are like their coworkers, rather than their employees.

A business with a mission

Alpharetta Bee Company served the couple as more than a business venture. Buchanan is a retired teacher, and Eves works as a substitute teacher at the Fulton County Schools Innovation Academy in Alpharetta.

Eves said two of her students want to learn about beekeeping and entrepreneurship, and this summer, they will help the couple at their Alpharetta Farmers Market booth.

“We’re going to train them to work at the market with us so that when one of us is gone, the other one that’s there will have somebody to help,” Eves said. “We’re super excited about it. They’re so cute.”

The company is also passionate about “bees, trees and seas,” and they said they hope to educate others and create awareness about saving the environment.

“We have information at the booth, and we have tasters so they can taste it,” Buchanan said. “They’re not just buying it blindly, and we let them try some of the sourwood, wildflower, whatever. We try to teach people about beekeeping and how mosquito spraying in the yard is not really good for the bees.”

Besides beekeeping, Buchanan is an artist, writer and filmmaker, and he searches the West and Southeast for fossils and shark teeth. He said he enjoys sharing his findings with children at the farmers market.

“We just like to talk to people,” Eves said. “We have pictures of us in our beekeeping suits at the market, and we found that a lot of people love to talk about bees. And if people want to bring their kids over and visit the beehives, we encourage that as well.”

Looking back and ahead

Before the success of Alpharetta Bee Company, Eves and Buchanan had to face the challenges of obtaining a license, paying sales taxes and covering expenses as new business owners.

“To me, the bumpiest thing is the fact that you’re totally dependent upon the bees to help you do this,” Buchanan said. “If we lose a couple of hives, whatever, then it cuts back on product and things like that. We do the best we can, but still the bees have the final vote on how everything’s going to work, and we cannot control that.”

While the pair are still expanding their online presence and navigating the

farmers market off-season, Eves said the business allows her to do the things she loves, and she is satisfied with the size and the market of the company.

“We don’t want it to get to where it’s just a job,” Buchanan said. “We still want it to be a business that makes us happy, not one that takes over our lives.”

Buchanan and Eves hope to expand their honey varieties in the future, and they plan to sell children’s books related to beekeeping and nature soon.

Alpharetta Bee Company is at the Alpharetta Farmers Market Saturdays 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. April 1-Oct. 31 and Saturdays 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. in November. The company will also set up at the Alpharetta Christmas Market in December,

The company’s online shop is at alpharettabeeco.com/.

Alpharetta Bee Company sells wildflower, sourwood and clover honey, as well as creamed and infused varieties March 15. Owner Deborah Eves also makes lotion and candles with beeswax, and co-owner Michael Buchanan painted bees that the couple sell

on handcrafted note cards.

PHOTOS BY SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA Michael Buchanan and Deborah Eves farm, package and sell honey out of their homes on Pebble Trail in Alpharetta March 15. The couple started Alpharetta Bee Company in 2021 as The Sunny Honey Company.

DutchCrafters celebrates 20 years of handcrafted perfection

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — When DutchCrafters CEO Jim Miller and his partner Miao Xue first went into business in 2003, they didn’t really know what they wanted to sell.

Normally, that doesn’t bode well for the survival of a business. But Miller and Xue, both former grad students at the University of South Florida, knew that an invention called the internet was starting to show a lot of potential for matching customers with niche products that were hard to find.

DutchCrafters will celebrate its 20th anniversary later this month, marking years of hard work through recessions, a global pandemic and countless other challenges that led them to become an industry leader in selling hand-crafted furniture to customers around the world.

“It’s been a great success story,” Miller said. “But wow, there were challenges along the way. It took a lot of work.”

Today DutchCrafters is known for selling high-end custom furniture made by Amish craftsmen from communities in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. But initially, Miller didn’t even think it would be possible to sell such an expensive product on the internet, which was seen as “shady” during its infancy.

“People didn’t trust it,” he said. “Consumers weren’t there yet. In 2003, total U.S. sales of eCommerce were something like 1.25 percent.”

Instead, they began selling nifty, but

less expensive, Amish-made craft items like decorative wooden lighthouses and outdoor furniture, which weren’t really being sold anywhere else online.

All that changed when Miller and his wife, Linse, took a trip to Pennsylvania to scout for vendors, and she convinced him they’d be crazy not to try selling the beautifully crafted furniture they kept seeing.

“I said, that’s never going to work. There’s too many problems,” he said. “The next year we did about half a million dollars in revenues … So, it was a great time to be wrong.”

Like the trust they had to build with

customers, Miller said they also had to slowly build relationships in the closeknit Amish craftsman community by convincing suppliers they could sell their products faster, more consistently and for higher prices than traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

“It was almost more difficult to break into the vendor community than it was with customers,” he said.

In October 2022 DutchCrafters cut the ribbon on their third location outside of their headquarters in Sarasota, Florida, and quality control warehouse in Indiana, a state-of-theart product showroom in downtown

Alpharetta.

Miller said DutchCrafters has been serving the North Fulton area for years, and he thinks that with the new location, they can boost their business in the region, while also charting a course for showrooms to open in other cities

“We’re really thrilled with the reception that we have had here from the business community and customers in Alpharetta,” he said. “We’ve felt really welcomed by it. We want to engage in the community and be part of it.”

But customers at the showroom aren’t going to take anything home with them, like they would from an Ikea, Rooms To Go, or other furniture stores. Instead, the showroom allows customers to learn about DutchCrafter’s products and options before their furniture is custom-made by Amish craftsmen.

A custom-made piece of furniture takes much longer to arrive at its final destination, months rather than weeks, but the end product is totally unique for each customer, Miller said.

“I call it slow furniture, like slow food,” he said. “Slow Food takes a little longer, yeah. But it usually tastes pretty good, you experience it in a different way. You sit down and enjoy it together with friends.”

Beyond that uniqueness, Miller said his customers are really buying a story.

“It’s an American story,” he said. “It’s a story that engages a high degree of authenticity. Real hands, real people working in small wood shops.”

For more information about DutchCrafter’s products and story, visit www.dutchcrafters.com.

At the DutchCrafters showroom, which opened in downtown Alpharetta this October, customers can see furniture styles and customize them in countless different ways.

PHOTOS BY ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

Each piece of furniture sold by DutchCrafters is lovingly hand-made by Amish craftsmen in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Customers can now see examples of many DutchCrafters pieces at their showroom off North Main Street in Alpharetta.

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VinoVenue

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — For the past decade, Vino Venue has been a onestop shop for all things wine related in Metro Atlanta. As a retail space, restaurant, wine school, private event space and travel hub, the store aims to educate everyone interested in wine.

Michael and Lelia Bryan went on their first trip as a couple to Napa Valley, California in 2001. Lelia was a wine lover, but Michael Bryan was new to the spirit.

“He absolutely fell in love with it,” Lelia said.

Michael returned and decided to start teaching wine classes. In the early 2000s, Lelia moved from Brookhaven to join Michael in Dunwoody and the pair opened the Atlanta Wine School on Holcomb Bridge Road. The school was a success, but the couple wanted to expand.

“We had so many people who would taste wine during their classes and want to buy them, want to learn more about them, want to be able to sample different wines,” Lelia said. “It really just made sense to have a place like Vino Venue.”

In October 2012, they opened the doors to Vino Venue, a so-called “wine emporium” with a retail store, cooking classes, tastings and a tapas-style restaurant. One month later, Michael Bryan was diagnosed with sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. He passed away five years later, in 2017.

Those five years were challenging for Lelia and the couple’s daughter, Willa.

“When he did pass, it was my goal to really just keep the vision he had alive,” Lelia said.

Vino Venue now sees 3,000 visitors annually for wine and cooking classes and conducts about 300 private wine events a year. The emporium also hosts a variety of guided wine trips throughout the year to destinations like Portugal and Piedmont, Italy.

The establishment has grown since it opened 10 years ago, but Lelia said she tries to maintain Vino Venue’s initial goal.

“We want to educate people who wanted to know more about the passion around wine,” Lelia said. “Not in a snotty or uptight way, but in a fun way, where people can really experience and try new things and broaden

their horizons.”

Vino Venue offers more than 100 types of wine for sale. About 10 percent of the selection costs more than $75. Lelia said the goal is to make wine approachable for everyone.

“We pride ourselves in finding unique wines that aren’t going to break the bank, are very enjoyable and are between $10 and $20,” Lelia said.

The selections aren’t what a customer may find at a typical grocery store, because the Vino Venue staff takes time to find “unique gems.” Lelia said her team tastes about 100 wines a week to find the best bottles.

“It’s a labor of love, it’s actually a lot of work,” she said.

Across the years, Vino Venue has opened its wine classes to people with all levels of experience and interest. Atlanta Wine School, now housed in Vino Venue, offers Wine and Spirit Education Trust certifications.

The establishment also offers casual classes during the week that span across wine regions, like “taste of Italy” or “taste of Greece.” Wine professionals teach attendees about the flavors of the region, as well as the best pairings for different foods.

Every few months, Vino Venue puts on a “discover” festival, like the upcoming “Discover France Festival” on March 26. Attendees can buy a ticket and sample around 80 wines and foods centered around France. Events like the discover series draw hundreds of customers, but Lelia said the business is “relationshipbased.” Her goal is to bring customers in on any level of their wine education and keep the relationship growing.

“Michael was passionate about making people feel comfortable in whatever wine knowledge they have, but also in their preferences,” Lelia said.

As the managing partner of Vino Venue, Lelia is an avid wine drinker. She said picking a favorite wine is like “picking a favorite child.” She takes particular pride, though, in a wine that honors her husband.

Lelia had a close friend and winemaker in Italy scatter Michael’s ashes in a vineyard, and the winemaker dedicated the vineyard to Michael. The white wine created from the vineyards is sold at Vino Venue, and all profits go to sarcoma research.

“It’s a beautiful white wine, it’s very unique,” Lelia said.

One-stop wine shop appeals to all tastes

DELANEY TARR /

Vino Venue, a wine bar, restaurant, event space and wine school has more than 100 wine bottles for sale at its Dunwoody location. The staff tastes about 100 wines a week to maintain a varied offering.

Tres Lunas infuses flavor and experience

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — A salient bond among women translates into the everyday operations at Tres Lunas, an infused tequila bar off Crabapple Road.

Many businesses tout a family atmosphere. But at Tres Lunas, the culture is in the hands of owner Debbie Rouillier’s daughters, Alyssa Rouillier, Joye Rouillier and Allie Ihara who authentically create a welcoming, familiar space to those walking in the door. They’re always on-site, steering the ship and ensuring that returning patrons are greeted by name.

Their familial relationships inspired the business name, which translates to three moons and represents the sisters. By the bar and below a Tres Lunas sign, a dark purple clock hangs, and on its face is a silhouette of three women jumping together under a glowing moon.

Allie’s husband, Jake Ihara, is the executive chef at Tres Lunas. A 2003 graduate of California Culinary Academy, Jake takes influence from his home state of California when concocting dishes that consist of a Mexican flavor palate and his Japanese background.

The restaurant boasts a collision of flavor and experience, referring to Jake’s unique plates using locally sourced and fresh ingredients, and the customer service offered at Tres Lunas.

“You get the best of both worlds here,” said Alyssa, second-incommand to Jake in the kitchen. “The experience is something you can’t really find anywhere else.”

Restaurant veterans

Before opening, Debbie, Alyssa and Joye sat at a high-top table describing the business, sometimes finishing each other’s sentences. When talking finances, Debbie said acquiring the business was a blessing. Joye, who manages the front of house, stepped in and said the cost of business is priceless.

“This is the price — the love, the passion, family, unity, collaborations, coming together as one,” Joye said.

The restaurant is modern and spacious with tall ceilings. Acrylic pourings cover the walls. A replica of a Volkswagen bus greets visitors entering the patio within eyesight of the bar, an area lined with large

windows and white lights, emitting a beach feel.

“We’re a vibey restaurant,” Alyssa said. “A place where you can go and be yourself.”

The restaurant business was instilled into the sisters at a young age. Their father, who died in 2016, was a chef. Tres Lunas was established in his honor.

Joye had been working in the same building for more than 10 years. While the family took over the business in November 2021, the building has been home to other restaurants. Most recently, the building housed a Mexican restaurant.

Over time, the Tres Lunas menu has transitioned from traditional Mexican to an infused style — honed during the weekend with Chef’s specials.

A new menu is set to be released in April, Alyssa said, the one-year anniversary of the restaurant’s official name change. Tres Lunas also has a brunch selection, offering churro French toast and chilaquiles with vegan and vegetarian options.

In addition to infused food, Allie works behind the bar creating specialized margaritas, incorporating fresh fruits.

Alyssa’s 14-year-old daughter,

Aniyah, also works at Tres Lunas as a hostess, the “little sidekick” to Joye. She also watches over kids in the restaurant’s play area, whose parents are back at the table. By the entrance, there’s a room that holds a large

Connect 4 set and other toys.

“There’s not one person that doesn’t fit the piece to our puzzle,” Joye said, praising the staff. “They all come in on time. They show up with the love and passion that we have.”

PHOTOS BY TRES LUNAS/PROVIDED

Tres Lunas owner Debbie Rouillier, daughter Joye Rouillier, granddaughter Aniyah, daughter Alyssa Rouillier, daughter Allie Ihara and Allie’s husband Chef Jake Ihara manage the restaurant, an infused tequila bar off Crabapple Road.

Breakfast loaded tots and crispy brined chicken lettuce cups are offered on the Tres Lunas menu.

Exercise Coach Alpharetta personalizes fitness

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — When Eric Roberts lost his job in 2019, he was forced to reimagine what he wanted to do with his life.

“I was just kind of trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and I was so glad to be back in Georgia,” Roberts said. “I was so glad to be back in Alpharetta that I absolutely thought, you know, I want to do something locally, and I’d always wanted to provide jobs.”

Roberts, a Macon native, spent his career traveling around the United States and Canada. After an opportunity relocated him and his wife to Georgia, Roberts opened The Exercise Coach Alpharetta in February 2021 after a year of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The studio, located in Suite 800 at 735 North Main St., offers customers two 20-minute sessions a week, where they work one-on-one with a coach to find a personalized routine that works for them.

Customers exercise on the studio’s proprietary Exerbotics equipment, which analyzes the user’s minimum and maximum force to tailor the experience. The machine, Roberts said, learns something new about a customer every time they use it.

The display on the equipment shows a range for each user. Roberts

said the goal is to keep the line within the shaded area.

Rather than doing 20 reps, he said, a user will do between four and eight intense reps, which loads the body’s muscles and burns energy. With each experience, workouts get progressively harder along with the customer’s individual pace.

Roberts, 54, said he had never enjoyed exercising, but a longtime friend introduced him to the studio’s Dunwoody location. There, despite initial skepticism, Roberts said he found a love of fitness, which he wanted to share with the community.

“And when I started to do it and I fell in love with it, I then signed the deal,” Roberts said. “It not only meets the need of what I had wanted to do is to bring jobs locally, but it’ll allow me to work out with a coach because I still work out to this day with my own coaches.”

He said his father, who owned a convenience store when Roberts was growing up, often spoke of the pride he had for his business that gave him the ability to give back to the community.

The studio employs five coaches who build relationships with customers to provide a customized experience beyond the equipment, Roberts said. Many of the studio’s customers, he said, are retired or live lifestyles that leave little time for exercise.

“We have a lot of pilots that come

The Exercise Coach Alpharetta Studio Manager Roxanne Foster uses the 735 North Main St. studio’s proprietary Exerbotics abdominals and back machine Feb. 16. The user’s goal is to keep the yellow line within the green shaded range, which will adjust in the next workout based on the user’s performance.

to us,” Roberts said. “We have a lot of retired people that come to us. We also have younger people as well, but it really is for that person that’s on the go, getting that full workout and not having to spend an hour in the gym and walking out of there and not feeling like you’ve just been attacked in any way, shape or form.”

Roberts also said the studio is a no-judgment zone that has no mirrors, and it lacks the atmosphere

that many gyms have.

Before opening the studio, Roberts worked in the insurance and energy efficiency industries. While he still does some consulting work on the side, Roberts said The Exercise Coach Alpharetta is his passion.

Beyond providing employment opportunities, Roberts said seeing how his studio has improved his customers’ lives is a rewarding experience. He described himself as a customer and the owner, and working out alongside patrons gives him the opportunity to find ways to improve the business.

Part of the personalized experience, Roberts said, is ensuring that customers get their money’s worth. He said the studio has been successful, and 10 percent of his customers have been there since day one.

The Exercise Coach has five other locations in Georgia. After his experience with the Alpharetta studio, Roberts said he hopes to open another in Cumming, Woodstock or Canton in the next year and a half.

“It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever experienced,” Roberts said.

The studio stops by the North Main Street Market at Alpharetta, which takes place in the parking lot in front of the studio, on Wednesdays from 3:30-6:30 p.m.

The Exercise Coach Alpharetta is open weekdays 6 a.m.-8 p.m., and Saturdays 8 a.m.-2 p.m.

SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

The Exercise Coach Alpharetta employs five, including, from left, owner Eric Roberts, Studio Manager Roxanne Foster, and coaches Joe Dougherty and Justin Phillips. Coaches at the 735 North Main St. studio work individually with clients to provide a personalized fitness experience.

SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

King George Tavern offers homey British charm

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

DUNWOODY, Ga. — On a dreary, rainy day, what could be better than a nice pint of lager or stout in a cozy pub?

You needn’t get on a plane or travel thousands of miles to feel the charms of a British-style pub when the King George Tavern in Dunwoody offers meals, drinks and atmosphere to anyone who graces its doorstep.

Located just north of I-285 on Chamblee Dunwoody Road, adjacent to a nail salon, massage parlor and Subway, the King George Tavern is a hidden gem that might be overlooked by a careless passerby. But considering its charms and reputation, to pass it by out of hand would be a mistake.

Opened in 2015 by local restaurateur Huw Thomas, who in the 1990s pioneered the Dunwoody Tavern as one of the state’s first British-style pubs, the King George Tavern has earned a loyal following of both locals and travelers coming off I-285.

“We get a lot of travelers, and it’s something unique for them that they haven’t really seen before,” said Britney “BK” Keane, King George Tavern general manager. “We have a lot of chains around here. So, it’s nice to have something a little bit more aesthetic and homey.”

That aesthetic is what Thomas and Keane agree makes a good British pub and fosters a loyal customer base. But none of that would happen without the right people in place, they said.

“You can hire waitresses, you can hire cooks, but anybody that goes behind the bar has to come in front of me because they are the ones that drive the business,” Thomas said. “When you put a drab person behind the bar, it just destroys the bar.”

“You can go anywhere for $9 Tito’s … they come to specific bars for the people behind the bar,” Keane said.

When Thomas opened the Dunwoody Tavern in 1996, after a previous restaurant in California and a foray into the real estate world, he said the concept of a British pub was basically unheard of in the Atlanta area.

In the years since, with an onslaught of new pub experiences, people have become almost desensitized to the aesthetic. But Thomas said for a little while it felt like they were doing something truly unique, that everyone wanted to be involved with.

“It was great because no one was trying to duplicate me, now everybody does fish and chips and we used to be the only ones doing it,” he said. “Years ago, it was like, ‘what’s fish and chips?’ Now you go into swanky restaurants and get it.”

At the King George Tavern, you can still get authentic fish and chips, along with other pub food staples like bangers and mash, cottage pie and a selection of British beers.

But they’ve also adopted their menu for the American palate, discarding classic British pub items that didn’t sell well, like pub curries or scotch eggs (deep-fried hardboiled eggs wrapped in

ground sausage and breading).

“If you did a real English pub in America, it would go out of business,” Thomas said. “We do what Disneyland does; we give you what you perceive is a [British] pub, but it’s not.”

But whenever they can, Keane said they still try to offer as many authentic touches as they can to their menu and aesthetic, because there is a surprisingly large British population in the Dunwoody

community.

“They want to come in and this is like their home,” she said. “Everyone who walks in here, I know what they drink as soon as they sit down. They don’t even have to talk to me if they don’t want to.”

Visit the King George Tavern at 4511 Chamblee Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody. Learn more about the Dunwoody Restaurant Group’s other locations at www.dunwoodyrestaurantgroup.com.

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

General Manager Britney “BK” Keane holds a freshly tapped pint of Guinness behind the bar at the King George Tavern with Dunwoody Restaurant Group founder Huw Thomas

KING GEORGE TAVERN/PROVIDED

The owner and manager of the King George Tavern in Dunwoody say that customers can expect a cozy, authentic experience with them, whether they’re loyal regulars or first-time visitors.

Fly fishing shop recasts image under new ownership

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Jeff Wright worked at Alpharetta Outfitters for more than 10 years before he bought the business in December. He began work there in 2010 as a new college graduate and worked his way up until he decided to purchase the shop from its founder.

The ownership has changed, but Wright wants customers to know “the spirit of the shop remains.”

Today, Alpharetta Outfitters on Main Street is a full-service fly fishing destination. The retail store offers a variety of gear from Yeti cups to fishing rods. It also hosts fly fishing excursions, guided trips and community events.

Wright has been with the business from nearly the start. The store opened in 2009, and he hired on a year later. He majored in biology in college, but originally planned to pursue a career in dentistry or nursing. At Alpharetta Outfitters, Wright realized a desk job wasn’t for him.

“I needed to kind of be able to move around and talk with people,” Wright said.

He loved fly fishing, a hobby he practiced with his father. Wright also cared deeply about water health and natural resources. Together, his interests created a “perfect storm,” and Wright knew he would be at Alpharetta Outfitters for the long haul.

The business looked different when it began. Chuck Palmer, the founder and original owner, sold all kinds of outdoor equipment, like backpacking gear, hammocks and fly fishing supplies.

As similar businesses popped up around Alpharetta, the store shifted focus.

“We decided to go ahead and specialize with larger businesses coming in town, like REI,” Wright said. “We needed to branch away from that kind of (shop).”

The store doubled down on fly fishing, becoming a one-stop shop offering trips, equipment and events like “Bugs and Suds,” a fly-tying night when the store serves pizza and beer. Wright said the decision made sense, because Alpharetta had an interested and affluent customer base.

“People that are going fly fishing typically have some disposable income,” Wright said. “Its not a cheap hobby.”

In Alpharetta, where the store has most of its customers, the average household income is about $119,000, according to U.S. census data.

Wright said a beginner can buy the necessary equipment for a few hundred dollars, but the higher-end pieces and additional gear can add up to the thousands. A single fishing rod can range from $200-$1,000.

“A lot of guys get into it and love getting gear, and they’re fine spending money on higher-end stuff,” Wright said.

The costs increase with things like guided trips and excursions. Alpharetta Outfitters offers trips to Idaho, Alaska, Patagonia, Argentina and Belize. Wright said the trips can cost anywhere from $4,500 to $9,000, depending on the destination.

Alpharetta Outfitters spent 12 years in business operating on a different business model than most shops of its kind. Palmer founded the store as a “not-for-profit” business.

After expenses were covered, any additional income the store brought in was donated to organizations and individuals. One year, the store gave $1,000 to an organization or person in need every day of December.

When Wright bought the store, he knew the model would change.

“I don’t have pockets as deep as Chuck,” Wright joked.

The store moved to a for-profit model at the start of 2023, but Wright said he will continue to donate to charitable organizations at a smaller

level.

A key focus for Wright is the preservation of the “natural treasures” in the environment around Alpharetta Outfitters. The store sponsors organizations in the area, including Upper Chattahoochee Trout Unlimited.

Wright said the store also donates to specific environmental projects the organization does, like its work on Crayfish Creek, the first feeder stream on the Chattahoochee River.

Alpharetta Outfitters donated $5,000 help reduce silt that comes into the streams from nearby development. The silt coats the rocks on the creek floor, which trout need to spawn.

The contributions are about protecting natural resources, but water health also helps the business. The better shape the streams and rivers are in, the easier it is to catch a prize trout.

“Trout don’t survive well in warm, stagnant water and polluted water, so they’re a pretty good indicator of general water health,” Wright said.

The store owner hopes his work on natural resources will raise awareness, especially for his customer base. Wright said when people get out in the field, they notice their environment more, and ask questions about its condition.

“They start to kind of understand their resources, what’s at stake and how to get involved,” Wright said.

In the future, Wright hopes to expand the store to create a dedicated community space for events, where people can hang out and share their love for fishing.

“Those bonds that are created at those events and on those trips, they’re so fun,”

said. “You see these guards drop, and you see these men and women really ultimately having fun and enjoying each other.”

Wright

PHOTOS BY DELANEY TARR / APPEN MEDIA

From left, Ross Tew, e-commerce specialist; Jeff Wright, shop owner; and Brent Goodman, marketing magician, stand at the counter of Alpharetta Outfitters on Feb 1. The store is a fly fishing retail and guided trip destination on Main Street.

Alpharetta Outfitters on Main Street sells a host of fly fishing equipment, like lightweight lures that mimic the appearance of flies. The store’s team also lead guided fly fishing trips in Georgia and across the world.

Roswell Firelabs serves as a gym for the brain

By AMBER PERRY amber@appenmedia.com

ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell Firelabs serves as a playground for visitors who like to tinker and create.

“It’s basically like a recreation center for your brain,” Roswell Firelabs Executive Director William Strika said, sitting in the facility’s multi-purpose room. The room is home to electronics, HAM radio and sewing/cosplay workstations.

“It’s just like somebody who goes to a gym to work out for physical strength,” Strika said. “You come here to kind of exercise your brain.”

Strika got together with a few people in 2017 and pitched an idea to the Roswell City Council to convert the newly vacated fire station on Holcomb Bridge Road into a makerspace. Roswell Firelabs, a volunteer-driven nonprofit, opened in November 2018 with 40 members.

Membership grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, Strika said, when people were losing their jobs, wanting to learn new skills or just wanting to get out of the house. Now, there’s around 145 members.

Roswell Firelabs offers regular classes on a variety of skills, open to the public. Members, who pay $50 a month, can receive classes for free or at discount. Strika teaches classes like laser cutting. Because he works his regular job remotely, he’s able to spend about six to eight hours a day at Roswell Firelabs.

“I love being here and helping everybody,” Strika said. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Gadgets line most of the walls and are tucked into every crevice inside Roswell Firelabs. Loads of industrialgrade equipment are separated into rooms categorized by purpose, like woodworking, metalworking, laser cutting, 3D-printing and a glass and sculpture space.

The largest area in Roswell Firelabs is its 1,200-square-foot woodworking area. Active use of the space’s equipment triggers the loud drone of the air filtration system, which catches wood dust. Over the deafening sound, Strika pointed to the metal, tubular air purifiers hanging out the room.

“Fine particle dust — it’s really hazardous to your health,” Strika said with a raised voice. “We take it pretty seriously.”

Woodworking is the biggest demographic, Strika said. Across the

room, member Doug Falan operated woodworking equipment to cut out small hearts. He plans to put them in bundles to sell to friends and family.

Falan and his family are from Michigan, but they come down for the winter. He either throws pottery or comes to Roswell Firelabs to work on wood projects. He said nobody has access to the number of tools Roswell Firelabs has.

“You can come over here and pick

your project, and you’ve got something to work with,” Falan said.

Strika personally likes to operate the high-tech stuff, like CNC, or computer numerical controlled, router.

In a demonstration, Strika walked to a nearby computer that has cloud-based software, used to carve designs on a number of different materials.

Roswell Firelabs also has 3D-printing. Strika said his number

one functional 3D-prints are vacuum adapters for different size hoses.

“I’ve 3D-printed more things than I can count,” Strika said. “How do I adapt a 5-inch pipe down to a 2 ½-inch part? It doesn’t exist … That’s a custom-made part that someone needs to make.”

Strika said many members use Roswell Firelabs as a launching point with prototyping. Some use the shop to sell products on Etsy for a living, he said.

Roswell Firelabs has proven functional outside of personal items. Members have built parade floats for the city’s Youth Day Parade, winning first place in the Civic Club Division in 2018 and 2019.

The first year, they built a replica of a 3D-printer that had a gantry, allowing the replica to move. The second year, they built a float that resembled NASA Mission Control. Strika said kids were sitting at desks, pretending to be scientists.

Strika hopes to collaborate more with the city, like making public art installations.

“Since we’ve actually kind of grown into our own space, we can start focusing outward instead of inward,” Strika said.

Early on, Strika said the board for Roswell Firelabs had to ask questions about how to get enough members to keep the place going.

“And now it’s like, how can we help the community more than just what’s inside our walls?” Strika said.

AMBER PERRY/APPEN MEDIA

Roswell Firelabs Executive Director William Strika stands in front of the nonprofit’s logo Jan. 20 in a corridor connected to the woodworking area. Founded in 2018, Roswell Firelabs promotes community through hands-on experience in a number of hobbies like woodworking, metalworking and 3D-printing.

Doug Falan uses woodcutting equipment to create small hearts at Roswell Firelabs Jan. 20. While Roswell Firelabs has several areas dedicated to different hobbies, woodworking has the greatest interest among the nonprofit’s 145 members.

Roswell Firelabs is on Holcomb Bridge Road in East Roswell. Classes, which are regularly provided by volunteers, are open to the public. But members, who pay $50 a month, receive them for free or at a discounted price.

LNB Candles brings Alpharetta clean, safe scent alternatives

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia.com

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Entering LNB Candles, visitors are greeted by a small, white chihuahua named Johnny Depp and a modern entryway, featuring floral backdrops and neon lighting one might find on a chic Instagram page.

LNB owner Michelle Walters says she offers something other major fragrance retailers do not: safe and clean scents with simple ingredients.

“It was not ever intended to actually be a full-time business, and it ended up turning out to be one, which is kind of cool,” Walters said.

A self-proclaimed “type A personality,” Walters said her business, located at 6778 Jamestown Drive in Alpharetta, relaxes her and helps her feel her own sense of Zen.

“I want you to feel like you walked into a place that’s here for you, that’s personalized for you,” Walters said. “So, if you have questions about anything, if you have concerns about anything, if you want to know, can I customize something. Like, I can do things more so than a big box retailer can do, and I want to do those things for you.”

Business background

Walters started making candles 10 years ago. Her daughter loved burning candles, Walters said, but after being diagnosed with a health condition, her daughter developed headaches, sleeplessness and cystic acne from the candles.

Some candles, Walters said, contain chemicals that make the scents harmful when inhaled. A study conducted by the South Carolina State University from 2006 to 2010 showed that candles made with paraffin, a wax made from petroleum, release dangerous chemicals that are “health hazards and could cause various diseases.”

The study also states that candles with bases made from soybean, the base that Walters uses at LNB, do not release similar pollutants.

“So, I made some candles, and then her friends came over to the house, and they’re like, ‘Mrs. Walters, could you make us a candle for our room?’” Walters said. “And then it turned into making candles for their parents that had businesses, and then making them for parties and events and weddings, and then just happened to walk by a location that had a for-lease sign and signed up and opened up the store.”

Walters has grown beyond candles, now selling car fresheners, room sprays and diffusers. She said LNB will experiment with body sprays and body lotions.

LNB Candles has already branched out into various retailers, including Walmart and Amazon.

“I got to the point now where I started off with a very small candle-making process, and now I’ve gotten to the point where I’m having a very large candlemaking process, melting wax for me every single day,” Walters said. “So it’s pretty cool.”

Walters said being environmentallyconscious is an important part of her business.

“That’s one thing I like about the products that I use, like a lot of times people bring the candles and are like, ‘Hey, can I refill them?’” Walters said. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, absolutely, come to the shop.’ Instead of throwing a candle container away, you can refill it again, and you can even choose a different scent to go in it.”

LNB’s products are also pet-friendly and non-toxic, she said. Her room sprays, unlike oil-based air fresheners, do not stain walls.

Setting up shop

Walters opened her shop last year. Part of choosing what products to make

and sell depends on a customer’s scent preferences.

“Usually, I go in, and I’ll bring them three types of scents,” Walters said. “So, I’ll bring them something that’s maybe like a floral, something that’s like a herbtype of scent and something else that’s a musk.”

Walters said candles are a very personalized item, and part of expanding on a scent line is deciding what customers most like.

Candles like the “Great Gatsby,” are inspired by personal anecdote. Walters said the scent reminds her of her grandfather, who smelled like aftershave when she hugged him.

Walters said the number of products for a particular scent she keeps in stock depends on demand and whether the scent is part of a limited holiday collection.

Whether it’s out of stock or a request for something new, however, Walters said she accepts custom scent orders to find a customer’s perfect product.

Customers will see the LNB logo displayed behind the front counter and a holiday display table when they enter. Down the hall and to the right is the

showroom, which Walters said she likes decorating for holidays. Heart pillows, the word “love” and a giant pink Teddy bear Walters stuffed herself get customers into the Valentine’s Day spirit.

Next up

This year, Walters said LNB is going through the trademark process, which would allow her to expand the business’s wholesale contracts.

“I would love to just keep expanding it into stores and into more boutiques and expand our line also on Amazon,” Walters said. “We have candles on Amazon, which have sold really, really well, but I was waiting for the trademark protection to come in before we continue to expand the line, just so we’re able to protect it.”

LNB makes stops at the Halcyon Farmers Market, the Vickery Village Farmers Market, the North Main Street Market at Alpharetta and the Milton Farmers Market.

The shop is open weekdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m.

“I love what I do, and I know it’s going into someone’s home, so I want them to love it when they get it and to enjoy the product,” Walters said.

SHELBY ISRAEL/APPEN MEDIA

Michelle Walters sells candles, room sprays, car fresheners, wick trimmers, diffusers and wax melts at LNB Candles, located at 6778 Jamestown Drive, Jan. 17. Walters’ candles and wax melts are soybean-based and are safe to inhale when burned.

Golf cart dealer keys in on Milton’s slow, simple lifestyle

By ALEXANDER POPP alex@appenmedia.com

MILTON, Ga. — If you’ve ever been out on the road in any of the dozens of golf cart friendly cities, you might have asked, “Why would anyone chose to drive around in one on the street?”

They’re slower than a car and are almost always open to the breeze. Worse, your range while using one is about 50 miles before they’ll need another charge or fill up.

But according to Robert Copenhaver, a partner with Low Speed Vehicles of Alpharetta, those are all the reasons you should consider a leisurely open-air ride in the Milton community.

Copenhaver opened LSV of Alpharetta as a licensed golf cart dealership with three partners in May 2022, out of a building off Mayfield Road in downtown Milton. The 24-year-old entrepreneur recalls that the idea goes back to his parents’ garage and a side hustle during college.

Growing up in Roswell, Copenhaver started and ran a successful landscaping company for several years until his business was acquired by a larger company in 2019.

“But while I was doing that, I

was kind of hustling on the side and selling golf carts out of my parents’ garage,” he said. “It was like super random, I would buy one and then fix it up, make it look nice and then sell it.”

Copenhaver graduated from Kennesaw State University at about the same time his landscaping company sold, and he was left with a big question, ‘What would he do next?’

For about a year and a half he worked for a developer in Florida, and while there he made a connection with his initial partner, John Gaston, who owned a building in downtown Milton. Before long, he was introduced to two other partners with existing connections to the golf cart manufacturer EZ-GO, who saw a viable business in him that could thrive in Milton

“It was three local partners in the Milton area,” he said. “They said, ‘We’ve got a connection to EZ-GO, you know how to sell the carts … and here we are today.”

With those opportunities and connections, they quickly set up shop in Gaston’s Milton building. Copenhaver said Milton is one of the most golf cart friendly cities they could have picked for the business.

When they opened, Copenhaver

said it was like the floodgates had opened and demand went off the charts. He thinks that’s due mostly to the golf cart ordinance Milton city officials passed in 2020 and the fact that there really isn’t another golf cart dealer nearby.

“It just made sense to kind of make our home base here,” he said. “Milton’s golf cart friendly, they passed the ordinance about a year before we got here. So, we jumped into that.”

Word has spread about LSV mostly through word of mouth and social media, he said. But it also doesn’t hurt that they’re located on Mayfield Road where traffic backs up near the roundabout at Heritage Walk in the afternoon, providing them a valuable place to advertise their vehicles.

“We put golf carts out front, and everybody sees them,” he said. “It’s funny because when they come out of the roundabout, they’re going like 5 miles an hour, so everybody slows down and they’ll look at our carts.”

To handle local demand for carts and the price of real estate space in the community, he said they opened with a “Tesla model” — putting their show room at a prominent location in Milton and opening a 5,000 square foot off-site service department on McFarland Parkway in Alpharetta.

Copenhaver said that if you asked him 10 years ago, he would have never expected to go into this line of business, but he has been continuously surprised at how fun and interesting the golf cart business has been.

“It sounds super cheesy, but you’re selling a lifestyle,” he said. “It’s a high-ticket item, but there’s so much you can do with it, and you can go anywhere.”

That lifestyle is one of LSV’s main selling points to those interested in buying a golf cart, but for Copenhaver, the draw of low-speed vehicles boils down to having a simple, convenient method of getting around town that doesn’t require maintenance or attention.

“Our whole society, I feel like, is moving towards the live-work-play model,” he said. “Everybody wants to live where they work and play … a lot of people don’t want to take their cars out, they don’t want to struggle with parking, they don’t want to drive around a parking deck at Avalon, they don’t want to fight traffic.”

To see LSV of Alpharetta’s inventory and learn more about streetlegal golf carts, visit them at their headquarters in Milton at 850 Mayfield Road or online at lsvofalpharetta.com.

ALEX POPP/APPEN MEDIA

At Low Speed Vehicles of Alpharetta, located off Mayfield Road, people can buy a method of transportation that’s simple, flexible and perfect for trips in the community, business Co-Founder Robert Copenhaver says.