If you like home cooked chili on a cold spring afternoon, then the Wishing Well is the place for you.
The store has re-opened after undergoing renovations, adding a small, quaint coffee bar called the Dandelion Bistro.
For Anja and Dennis Donkers, the bistro was always a dream, and now it has become more than they could have hoped for.
The Donkers have owned the Barrhead Bakery for almost seven years, and have always wanted to make an addition to their store.
“We always wanted to add a coffee corner, or a coffee shop at the bakery, but there’s no room there,” Anja Donkers, co-owner along with her husband Dennis of the Wishing Well and Danelion Bistro, said.
On May 13, the store re-opened and served lunch to the community for the first time. On the menu was chili in a bread bowl, homemade soup, breadsticks, and crepes.
Unfortunately, Donkers said, in order for the bistro to become a reality, previous Wishing Well owner Kristi McKort had to close her doors.
McKort was trying to sell her business when the Donkers’ decided to look into the opportunity.
“It’s sad to see another business on Main Street go, but I looked into it and decided to do this and give it a try,” Donkers said.
Since then, the store has been under renovations.
“We really wanted to change it into country rustic,” Donkers said.
Along with the bistro, the store now sells gifts and other novelty items.
Under the previous owner, the store simply sold merchandise, but the Donkers had different ideas in mind.
Now, the back portion of the store is home to a small bistro.
“We are pretty excited, and we are pretty proud of it,” Donkers said. “We are hoping that they (customers) like it, and they come back.”
The bistro offers more than lunch specials, it also offers homemade crepes.
“We have coffee, and specialty coffees, and snacks like cinnamon buns, and for lunch we have two daily specials, and crepes made daily,” Donkers said.
Laura Pederson, employee of the Bakery and now the Wishing Well, said she was shocked to see the store after the renovations.
“The first time I came in here my head was spinning because it’s so pretty in here,” she said. “They’ve done fantastic.”
Having the store across from the Bakery is helpful for numerous reasons.
“There were other options but this one made the most sense,” Donkers said, adding the employees will work both locations, and all food is made fresh in house every day.
Pederson said she hopes the community will embrace the addition.
“I hope that people come here and have their coffee in the morning and read the paper, and people come in and you actually know their name,” she said. “I think that would be nice in a small town bistro like this.”
For more information, and to keep up with the Dandilion Bistro’s daily specials, visit their Facebook page: The Wishing Well Home and Gift.
The store is open from Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., hours that could change.
Dennis Donkers said the store will also have free WiFi, small catering, take-out, gift baskets, and private parties.
He added they are still ironing out what will be available on Saturdays.
For more information call 780-674-1513.
