
“I want to thank everybody today for coming to our ribbon-cutting and being part of our first month. It’s been so fun.”
That is Aubry Hassemer, owner of the lakeshore area’s newest coffee shop called Retro Eighth, located at 8th and Huron Streets in Manitowoc.
Aubry and her boyfriend Cody remodeled the former auto repair shop into her newest business venture.
“I’ve got a great team working here,” she told Seehafer News. “(Former mayor) Kevin Crawford, Erin Karenna, my mom Vicky, and myself. And I can’t thank everyone enough. It’s been so great.”
Hassemer is only 20 years old but she already has some business-related experience.
“I’ve done some house renovations in the past myself, fix up some houses, and done a little bit of other business-type things on the side,” she explained. “My number one thing was just I’m not going to let fear stand in my way because I think a lot of people that are thinking about going into business or have a business idea are just plagued about what if when starting a business. I think that planning it thoroughly and knowing your idea has potential and then going full force at it is the best thing to do.”
Several city officials were on hand Monday for the ribbon cutting, including Mayor Justin Nickels who addressed the neighborhood business angle.
“A cool story is someone young putting something together like this,” he said. “It’s really neat to see this area of town where Louie’s Sporting Goods was and start seeing businesses like Ivy Trail move over here and now this pop up. I think it’s really cool to see people come down here to shop and have some coffee.”
Hassemer also explained that this Saturday they’ll be hosting some live acoustic music with Nathan Decker.
Then, in the summer she plans to open the garage doors for some live music and outdoor seating.