By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Sandy Wicks remembers watching people walk by Grounds for Thought on the morning of Oct. 19, 1989. The shop had just opened in space formerly occupied by Evans office supplies.
This was the Wicks family’s version of the “funky little” coffee shops and bookstores they’d encountered traveling the byways between here and Arizona, as well as elsewhere.
People would just walk by, she said. And they started wondering about this bit of venture capitalism.
“Somehow people started coming in,” she recalled. They were curious. Students discovered the place.
Some early supporters, Sandy recalls, had advice. The shop was never going to make it if it didn’t allow smoking.
Sandy replied she didn’t smoke nor did her grown children Kelly and Bridget, who ran the shop. They didn’t want to have to put up with smoke.
After all, there were tables out front.
So she stood her ground, and the shop went its own way.
“It became a place where you could come in and read and meet with friends,” said Kelly Wicks, who along with his wife, Laura, bought the shop in 1991.
Within eight months, the shop expanded for the first time into the space at the rear of the store.
Now 30 years later, people walking down Main Street in Bowling Green do stop in Grounds for Thought, and often that’s the reason they are downtown.
The Maxwell House is long gone. Grounds started roasting its own beans a few years after opening. It was a way to assure quality and control costs, Sandy said.
The roaster now provides beans for the shop, but also for other businesses and eateries around the area and to online customers across the country.
Beside coffee and tea in a variety of forms, it offers sandwiches made in store, fancy cakes, delectables from local bakers, and ice cream.
The shop has grown from 1,800 square feet to 7,000 square feet and from 9,000 books to a stock of 250,000 books, comics, vinyl records, and DVDs.
All those items will be half price this weekend, Friday Oct. 25 to Sunday Oct. 27, as the shop celebrates its 30th anniversary.
There’ll be 50 cent cups of drip coffee with free refills — a nod to the Maxwell House the shop served early on along with its specialty coffee. There’ll be free t-shirts, raffles, and door prizes.
Sandy, who manages the used book operation, will create a window design celebrating the shop’s 30 years. Her son described her as the shop’s resident artist who designs the window, in-house displays, and a variety of quirky craft items, made from paper from discarded books and old coffee bean sacks. She organizes the shop’s Christmas boutique.
And the celebration will feature lots of music. Over the years Grounds has hosted performers from around the world and around the corner.
On Friday night Moths in the Attic will release its self-titled debut recording at an 8 p.m. concert. Drew Joseph will open.
Zack Fletcher, frontman for Moths, said that this is the first full show the trio will perform at Grounds.
“BG is where we’re from and Grounds has been a cultural and arts hub of our hometown for as long as I can remember,” he said. “So we’re happy to help celebrate their anniversary with our release. Plus I think the environment will lend itself to our performance. I’ve seen very lively rock shows there as well as more intimate, listening room type shows which is cool.”
That contrast will be evident on Saturday night at 8 p.m. when the shop will present a blues jam featuring Maurice John Vaughn, Shirley Johnson, Freddie Dixon and John Watkins.
Closing out the weekend will be a show by Tree No Leaves at 7 p.m. That will include a sneak peak screening of “Waiting to Arrive,” a public TV documentary on the band.
Tree No Leaves released an album last year on the Grounds for Thought record label, which will mark its 10th anniversary next spring, probably with another release.
That development seemed natural after the shop started selling used LPs. Kelly Wicks has been collecting records since 1976 when he bought his first records — Foreigner and Elton John — from Finders Records. When Madhatter closed, he said, “it made sense without stepping on anybody’s toes to add vinyl.”
In the weeks leading up to the anniversary celebration, Kelly and Laura have been away.
They with members of their staff traveled to Columbia to visit a coffee farmer there, and then were in New York City to receive a national award from Americans for the Arts to recognize the shop’s extensive support for the arts in the community.
That includes being among the founders of the Black Swamp Arts Festival, and supporters of all manner of community events. Last year, Laura joined with other downtown women shop owners to launch the Firefly Nights Festival series.
Grounds for Thought hosts chess players, puzzle enthusiasts, knitters, readings by visiting international authors, poetry readings, theater troupes, presentations on schools and fracking, and more.
“We’re very fortunate that Grounds has allowed us to be a part of this community,” Kelly said.
While the couple remains hands on business owner-operators, and are in the shop pretty much every day when they’re in town, they now have a crew of about three dozen.
That includes Dave Breen, the head roaster for 20 years, and Monica Gonzalez, the head manager for the coffee shop. Longtime barista Caitlin DeRan is now an apprentice roaster.
“We always had aggressive hours,” Wicks said. At the start, the shop opened at 7 in the morning, and stayed open until 11. The only change is it now opens at 6 a.m.
“Back then we didn’t know any better,” Kelly said. “It’s hard to make money if you’re closed. The business just grew into those hours because the community utilizes the shop the whole time.”
He added: “Looking back on it now we put in unbelievably long hours. … It was, and still is, a labor of love.”
When Kelly and Laura had children — Declan, now 23, and Rowan, 21 — it meant half their time at the shop, half their time taking care of the kids.
Soon they hired their first two employees Henry Marchand and Jeff Fearnside.
Declan worked at the shop until moving to take job in Washington D.C. and Rowan, who studying to be a nurse, still keeps her hand in as the shop’s merchandiser.
“We rely on a strong crew to help us to grow,” Kelly said.
That growth continues. The shop has purchased the building down the street at 244 S. Main as the new location for its roaster, which is now located on West Wooster. Kelly expects the move to be completed in late spring.
Those travels to Nicaragua and Columbia have led the shop to get an import license, so it can directly buy its beans from growers.
That’s just an international extension of its support for local entrepreneurs who sell their products at Grounds.
“Even though we’re 30 years into it,” Kelly said, “we keep pushing ourselves to grow and change and always be the best.”
