The month of September has led to shifts or changes in the businesses in uptown Mount Vernon, with two of the corner businesses in Mount Vernon announcing sales and closures.
Skillet Café, a restaurant that started in 2008, announced in the middle of August that its last day of business would coincide with the start of the new school year in Mount Vernon.
Cherie Guillaume said that the high school staff that worked at Skillet Café every year were one of the reasons that the business was able to stay open.
“They were some of the hardest working staff in that community,” Guillaume said. “Many of them were athletes, so it was sometimes hard working around their schedules, but they all were hard workers when they were at the restaurant, and during the summer and it was easy to find staffing, as we had college and high school kids available to work the morning and lunch shifts.”
The Guillaumes had begun looking to put Skillet on the market after their son, Noah, graduated from high school and went off to college to play college basketball.
“Noah was involved in high school basketball and tournament basketball when he was in high school, and with him in college if we wanted to continue to go see some of his games and try to keep a restaurant open, that would continue to be a challenge.”
Cherie said the couple made the decision to put the business on the market in late 2019, and were ready to start taking offers for the business at the start of spring 2020.
And then the pandemic hit.
“It just felt like the wrong time to be selling a restaurant that could only be offering carry-out service during a pandemic,” Cherie said.
Cherie noted that the carry-out during the pandemic was one of the ways they pivoted.
“We weren’t selling a lot off breakfast foods during the pandemic, as families were at home and had those items for their kids already,” Cherie said. “Where we saw an increase in our businesses was with our take and bake meals for families. That proved to be one of our biggest successes during the pandemic.”
The business weathered the COVID mandated shutdowns and started with showings of the business in the fall of 2020.
“One of our first showings for the space was literally scheduled the day of the derecho,” Cherie said.
The couple met with many different groups in trying to keep the restaurant business going, and it came down to offers from two separate groups in August and September, one a couple looking for a restaurant space and the other a business venture that wouldn’t be using the space as a restaurant.
“We would have loved to have gone with the couple looking to open a restaurant space, but it just wasn’t proving to be a good long-term plan for the space,” Cherie said. “We decided to go with the other offer and let the restaurant portion of the business go.”
That deal closed Sept. 16, with the Austin McNally Trust of Texas taking ownership of the building and the apartment.
Cherie said that when she and Fran started Skillet 13 years ago, they didn’t know how successful the restaurant would be, that many restaurants don’t last that first year.
The restaurant went on for more than 13 years and became one of the restaurants people knew in Mount Vernon.
“I definitely miss the people in Mount Vernon, especially our regulars and the local customers,” Cherie said. “So many of those faces became our family for the past 13 years, and you miss seeing your family. That’s been the hardest part of selling the business — missing people.”
Cherie said the business portion, especially the business of the restaurant at times, is something she doesn’t miss.
Fran has been working at Antioch Christian Church in Marion for the past eight years, and has since been promoted since the church bought Stony Point YMCA in Marion.
As for Cherie, she’s enjoying semi-retirement at the moment, spending more time with her family and doing some things she couldn’t always do because of the pressures of running a restaurant every day. She’s sure she’ll find a part-time job in the future, and she and Fran still have a dream to travel in RV campers.
Kae Apothecary The second business closure that happened in September was that of Kae Apothecary in uptown Mount Vernon.
Andrea Gorsh, owner of the business, accepted a position in Des Moines beginning in October 2021.
“When I moved to Mount Vernon with my daughter a little over 11 years ago, I knew no one,” Gorsh said. “We lived above Scarlet Boutique and the business owners of Uptown Mount Vernon were my first acquaintances and friends. Shortly after our arrival I became involved as a volunteer with the CDG where I met folks who welcomed us with open hearts and wide smiles. Mount Vernon and its residents have taught me what it means to be part of a community. How to work together to make amazing things happen like Chalk the Walk and cleaning up after a derecho. The friendships, both personal and business, we have cultivated together have given me deep appreciation and understanding of community.”
Gorsh and Kae Apothecary were named business of the year by the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group in 2020.
Kae Apothecary rented its space on First Street. The final day the business was open to foot traffic was Sept. 25.
Her online business will continue once she is settled into her new space in Des Moines for customers who need the herbal tea blends and more products Kae was known for. She encourages people to keep abreast of her social media sites to know when those spaces are open and taking orders again, which will likely be happening in early 2022.
“Thank you to everyone who became my first friends here and made this place feel like home and thank you to everyone who supported the Apothecary over the last six years,” Gorsh said. “Together we created a magical space that will live on in our hearts forever.”
Other business changesWhile two businesses have shuttered their doors in the past few years, Casey O’Connor has taken strides since late summer 2021 to create new office space options in uptown Mount Vernon.
O’Connor bought the Town Center building on the corner of First Street East and Hwy. 1.
O’Connor said that all of the current businesses and tenants in the building have been grandfathered in, and over the past couple of months he has done some remodels to the space, including internet and networking infrastructure, new carpeting and flooring, new furniture for the break room and conference room and other spaces.
One of the remodels has been to a conference room that can be used by all tenants, as well as a reception room and break room in the space.
Those improvements are what he has called phase 1 of the operation, with Phase 2 being allowing small businesses a space to have their mail delivered.
O’Connor said he is working with the local postmaster on that front, as well as working with Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group and the City of Mount Vernon to establish a few parking zones around the uptown business devoted to quicker parking during peak business times to allow more people to visit the uptown.
The parking spaces initiative was brought up at an early September city council meeting.
That could mean between 30 to 50 small business people making treks to uptown Mount Vernon on a more regular basis, which would be an additional benefit to area businesses, as they could be visiting more than just the mailbox on their trips, O’Connor said.
Phase 3 of the renovation will be creating a concrete coworking space for people to be able to use a desk and computer at a desk or work space that isn’t in their own home space.
That phase could be some time later this year.
O’Connor said that he views anything he invests in the office space as an investment in the town of Mount Vernon.
The idea for more office space was spurred before the pandemic hit, and only made more important following that pandemic, he said.
“I originally started renting space for my business from Jerry two years ago,” O’Connor said. “I recognized the supply to demand issue two years ago, and that’s only increased with more people working from either home or a hybrid workspace.
O’Connor said he gets the need to have a work space that isn’t at his home on occasions, and that the space worked out well for what he needs.
O’Connor said his work with Can Do Can Teach, his consulting business, gives opportunities as well. During the pandemic, he has helped with brand marketing resources, like seminars and conferences on website domains and that is something he’d continue doing as well.
O’Connor said he has been extremely lucky that all of the items he has been doing with flooring, new doors and infrastructure to the office building have not been met with any snags.
“All of the providers who have offered help have been for things I don’t feel comfortable doing on my own,” O’Connor said.
His wife, Bridget, has done a lot of work in making the office spaces and decorations for the spaces as well.
“A lot of the way these offices and spaces look, that’s because of her work,” O’Connor said.
This is a venture that could be utilized in other communities in Iowa as well if people put the time and energy into renovations of existing spaces.
For more information on the Town Center Office Suite renovations, check out https://www.towncenterofficesuites.info/.
Sing-A-Long Bar and GrillSkillet’s closure in early August pushed local restaurant Sing-A-Long Bar and Grill to open a breakfast menu and extended hours for their location at the top of the hill beginning Sept. 21.
Those hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday through Saturday, with additional evening hours of 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturdays with the restaurant’s full menu.
The brunch menu includes breakfast sandwiches, steak and eggs, omelettes, pancakes and other brunch favorite foods.
A newly remodeled waiting room at the Town Center Office Suites in uptown Mount Vernon