By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A group of local entrepreneurs have a lot on their plate as they plan to serve up a beloved local delicacy.
Sisters Emily and Natalie Carty and father and son Jim and Nathan Grames, doing business as J.E.N.N. Investments, have purchased the Stimmel’s bakery operation with the intent of continuing to sell the shop’s doughnuts and other treats.
“We just want to get the ‘yum’ back in doughnuts in Bowling Green,” Jim Grames said.
Mel Simmel closed the shop back in April as he struggled during the pandemic. Natalie Carty had heard that he was looking for a buyer even before then.
The investment group meanwhile had been working on opening a restaurant, particularly one that focused on chicken.
“When COVID hit we put the brakes on anything to do with the restaurant,” Jim Grames said. “We figured even with COVID this was a good opportunity to keep moving.”
Early this month, they closed on the deal to buy the bakery business and assets – Stimmel will continue to operate the deli. Since the closing the deal, the partners have been working late into every night to get ready for reopening the shop in early November.
Most of the renovation is cosmetic. As with any renovation work, new issues arise, Jim Grames said, and they want the place up to their standards.
It’ll look different, Emily Carty said.
The bakery goods will be the same.
They are focusing at first on the doughnuts. That includes the whole wheat doughnuts, which a number of customers have been requesting, Jim Grames said.
With the holidays approaching, the pies are also a top priority.
Natalie Carty will be the night baker. Stimmel’s son, Matthew Stimmel, “will stay on to train everyone,” Jim Grames said. “We’ll make everything the way it’s always been made.”
The goal is eventually to bring back all the bakery products – brownies, muffins, cookies, bread and bagels.
“You may not see it all at once,” Nathan Grames said.
His dad brings the culinary experience to the project. He worked as a cook in the Air Force, before transferring to munitions. He retired from the Air National Guard in 2013. He was commander of American Legion Post 409 in Weston, and he ran the kitchen, doing the prep and cooking, for all its meals.
Jim Grames also manages the concession stand at the Wood County Fairgrounds for the Horse and Pony Club, formerly the Royal Inn.
“At my house, I’m the one who cooks,” he said.
Stimmel’s, at 1220 W. Wooster, is “a neighborhood market and that’s what it’s always been. It holds its value because of that,” Jim Grames said.
The Carty sisters know that well having grown up on Martindale, right around the corner.
Stimmel operated the shop since 2004 after taking over from Tyrrell’s Market. The Tyrrell family still owns the building.
Emily Carty said that though the shop benefits from being on the heavily traveled West Wooster Street, the shop does not attract much student business. The new owners would like to change that.
“We’ll try to include everyone,” Natalie Carty said.
Their experience running Carty Rentals, which was founded by the sisters’ grandparents 50 years ago, helps in this regard. The four are partners in that business as well.
Through the rental agency, Emily Carty said, they already work both with the campus and community.
People will stop by as they are working in the shop offering encouragement, Nathan said. “It’s nice to see the support.”
