Fluff Bakery & Catering, known for its sweet baked goods, will be going savory with the opening of a new restaurant next month.
The 8 N. Court St. bakery owners, Jessica and Jason Kopelwitz, will open Rickshaw Thai in mid-April. No specific opening date has been set at this point.
“We started (serving) curry (at Fluff Bakery) every Friday, which has taken off,” Jessica said. “Jason started looking into more recipes. We’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time.”
She added that because they have gotten used to running Fluff, she and her husband felt they would be able to take on another business.
Rickshaw Thai will be located at 11301 Jackson Drive, which Jessica said seemed to be a good space based on its affordability.
“Mechanically, it’s fairly ready to go,” she said. “We have to be very strategic about the location (because of limited startup money).”
The restaurant is located off Johnson Road, which intersects with U.S. Route 33. Last month, the Ohio Department of Transportation was working with city officials to close the Route 33 intersection.
David Rose, public information officer for ODOT’s 10th district, said that despite a six-month postponement for the median closure, the department would “always work with locals on things like this” to ensure that they are content and relatively unaffected by the closure and construction, so there should not be any interference with Rickshaw Thai.
The Kopelwitzes plan to have Rickshaw Thai opened every Friday and Saturday night during dinner hours to start easing into the business and building their way up.
The duo also plans on running the restaurant themselves until they figure out exactly how many people would be needed to keep the restaurant running smoothly. Current Fluff employees have been offered positions at Rickshaw Thai if they are interested.
Jessica said that many Fluff customers, including Ohio University students, have never been to the location where Rickshaw Thai will be. Therefore, it is a good way to bring attention and business to the area, she said, adding the new restaurant will also draw in more customers for Fluff Bakery.
“As soon as I posted info about Rickshaw Thai, people stopped in,” Jessica said. “I think they’ll feed off of each other.”
kf398711@ohiou.edu
