ASHLAND — Downtown Perk, a Main Street coffee shop and café, will soon have new owners, current owner Lisa Zeno Lee announced in a recent Facebook post.
“After 14 years the time has come for the torch to be passed. The outpouring of support and encouragement over the last several years during difficult challenges was so needed and so appreciated; Thank You!” Zeno Lee wrote.
Zeno Lee bought the building in which Downtown Perk resides in 1998. She spent years renovating the structure and fixing the upstairs apartments before opening Downtown Perk in 2008.
Her husband, David M. Lee, did all the design work for the shop and built the kitchen, Zeno Lee said.
“We are definitely a team, we worked to get this off the ground,” she said.
Ownership of the store is being passed on to Sean and Carly Little, owners of The South Street Grille. The Littles did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Zeno Lee told Sean Little about her plans to move on when he was working at Sysco, an international company that distributes and markets food and kitchen supplies.
Sean was responsible for supplying Downtown Perk. He told her to let him know when she was ready to sell.
Now that the time has come, Zeno Lee is hopeful the Littles will have greater success with finding supplies for the shop, an issue she has been dealing with recently.
“Every week it’s something different. You know, sometimes it’s our buffalo chicken, sometimes it’s some of the flavored syrups, I can’t find certain smoothies, I can’t find my Ghirardelli frap mixes. I mean, every week it’s a new challenge,” Zeno Lee said.
The Littles are also hoping to keep things mostly the same at Downtown Perk, Zeno Lee said.
