LEWISTON: Sweets future for Little Yellow House

By Dan Miner/minerd@gnnewspaper.com
Niagara Gazette

January 03, 2008 07:20 pm

— Center Street had nearly everything one could want for a leisurely village stroll, including an attractive setting, shops and eateries.
Jonathon Boas is hoping he can help the rich get richer.
Boas and his business partner, Cathy Yolevsky, are in the process of opening a new chocolate shop at the historic Little Yellow House, the former headquarters of the Lower Niagara River Region Chamber of Commerce. They plan to call it The Little Yellow Chocolate House.
“We were sitting at the (Steelhead Irish Pub) having lunch and decided that Lewiston didn’t have a chocolate house,” said Boas, who was hired to start up and manage Wine on Third in Niagara Falls for the first six months of its existence. “We thought that would be a great location.”
After asking around, Boas was pointed in the direction of the chamber of commerce, where he would surely be informed of a good place to start the business, Boas was told.
“They said, ‘well, we’re moving,’ and it was like fate,” Boas said.
The shop will be “upscale,” and feature the chocolate of Kenmore-based Watson’s Candies, Boas said. Boas and Yolevsky are leasing the building from the Village of Lewiston and will paint two downstairs rooms but leave it otherwise unchanged.
Watson’s officials warned Boas that the chocolate business can be slow in the summer.
“I said, ‘no, we’re going to Lewiston. There’s a concert there every weekend,” Boas said. “We’re going to rock.”
The shop will officially open on Jan. 31. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a 10 percent grand opening discount.
“We really feel like the personalized service and attention to detail plus a quality product will make it work,” he said.
The chamber needed to move because it had outgrown its location at the Little Yellow House, said Sandy Hays-Mies, the organization’s executive director. It’s new home will be a private residence they will lease and convert into an office at 100 N. Third St., part of which faces Center Street.
“We’re going into our fourth year as a chamber of commerce and we’ve grown by leaps and bounds,” Hays-Mies said. “Although we’ve loved the little yellow house and it’s been a great home for us we’ve outgrown the site.”
The chamber’s new home will allow its four staff members more room and afford them the means to have private discussions — something that wasn’t possible at the Little Yellow House, Hays-Mies said. The chamber also gains income by selling group health insurance to businesses.
Hays-Mies said the chocolate house will be an excellent addition to Center Street, which should have as much retail business as possible.
“That’s what adds to the attraction for our visitors when they’re shopping along Center Street,” Hays-Mies said. “We’re really pleased the village is committed to putting retail in this site.”
There have been chocolate shops along the street in the past, but none currently exists, Hays-Mies said.
“Most people have a sweet tooth,” she said. “So that will be a nice opportunity for them and for us.”

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