Gibson County small business owners have been switching things up recently, selling R’z Cafe in Fort Branch and recently putting Haubstadt’s Carriage Inn on the market.
“We have decided to sell Carriage Inn because we are ready to retire from food service,” said the current owner of Carriage Inn, Cindy Scheller. “We have owned it for 11 years and are ready to try a new adventure.”
Owning a small business, especially a restaurant, is time-consuming. Selling the restaurant will be a good break for their family according to Scheller.
“I love Carriage Inn and have made it a priority,” Scheller said. “I spend every day of the week either working there or doing office work related to the business. We have about 40 employees, and that is a lot of people to be responsible for! I feel obligated to give 100 percent to Carriage Inn on behalf of my staff.”
It is important to the Schellers that Carriage Inn goes to the right people who are going to care about it as much as they did, and the price matches that expectation.
“I feel the price reflects the value of the property and goodwill of the business,” Scheller said. “We want the Carriage Inn to go to a new owner who will love it as we do. We set the price to allow for that.”
R’z cafe was sold in March to Lance and Lauren Alston. With already owning The Brass Ring in Haubstadt, the Alston’s plate was pretty full. But, according to Lauren Alston, she loves R’z Cafe and knew it would be a great place for her to own.
“R’z Cafe is my favorite restaurant, and I love to plan parties and to cater,” she said. “We had outgrown our kitchen at the brass with how big our catering business has grown, so buying R’z just made sense.”
Alston acquired R’z Cafe on August 30, so the last month and a half has been them getting used to owning two restaurants and managing their time between them.
“It’s a ton of work, but in the next month, we will have most things figured out,” Lauren Alston said. “It’s going to go much smoother. I think doing schedules for the employees and seeing if we have enough inventory and what we need to get more of is the hardest part.”
The former owners of R’z Cafe, Dan and Candy Yancey, were great bosses according to the employees. The Alstons filled the their spots well by also being great bosses.
“Dan and Candy were great bosses, and the Alstons made the transition of bosses smooth,” high school employee Isaac Marvel said. “Not many changes were made after the transition, so the new work environment stayed simple and easygoing.”
