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South on Snelling, at 510 Snelling Ave. N., is a little Ethiopian restaurant called Fasika. It’s owned by Menderene Gebretsadik, who opened it with her business partner three years ago.

Kathy Sundberg, the owner of Ginkgo Coffeehouse, started the business 12 years ago after working as an engineer. When she started, there were fewer than 20 coffee houses in the Twin Cities, she said.

Lily’s Consignment Shop, just north of Ginkgo Coffeehouse, opened in October of last year. Owner Lily
Beauchamp wanted a store that would support several different communities, especially the GLBT community.

Wendy Hamilton has been with Associated Sewing since 1973, when her husband started the business.
She took over the business in 1993 while battling breast cancer.

“I wanted to grow the business,” she said. “I had breast cancer, my husband didn’t want to be in the sewing industry any more, and I thought this was something I still wanted to do. It gave me motivation to recover.”

Since taking over the business, Hamilton has expanded the business to include three additional locations.

Getting started

Named after all the handy foods on a stick at the State Fair, Mosaic on a Stick offers a community space, a classroom for teaching mosaic works, an open workshop for customers to make mosaics, and opportunities for parties. The two owners create the work sold, working mostly on commission, Ricke said.

Jun-Li Wang, a community organizer and leadership coordinator of the HamlineąMidway Coalition, was
in an art class that Ricke and Greene were also taking. While in the class, Ricke and Greene discussed the idea opening a store dedicated to the community and the art of mosaics. Wang suggested the Midway for the shop location.

Ricke and Greene met with Wang and Dave Gagne, executive director of the Coalition, while pursuing the loans necessary to open the business. The two women opened their store on Nov. 4, just six months after the first meeting with the Coalition members.

“It’s all happened so fast,” Ricke said. “It’s kind of like we got married, had a baby. We have a joint checking account. We like to joke about that.”

Sundberg, the owner of Ginkgo, never thought about opening up a restaurant until the opportunity arose, she said. Her coffeehouse offers affordable, homemade food, while also serving as a miniąart gallery and music venue for touring musicians and open-mic nights.

A relatively new addition to the area is Fasika, an Ethiopian restaurant owned in part by Menderene Gebretsadik. Gebretsadik enjoys sharing native Ethiopian food with local customers she’s met.

“American people today don’t know our culture and our food,” she said. But now she is able to share her cooking talents and love for the cuisine with the people of the community.

When Gerry Hagen’s husband died in a car accident, she had to choose between continuing her career as a teacher or continuing to run Hamline Hardware, the store that had been in her husband’s family for years. Her theną13-year-old son asked her to keep the business for him, and she has been the owner since.

After 40 years dedicated to the hardware store, Hagen is fading out of the business and letting her son take over. She said she still works a lot of hours, but the goal that is her son will soon be running the show.

“Smaller businesses are struggling,” Hagen said. “The big boys are trying to shove us out, but because of the specialized attention we try to give our customers, we hope we’ll be in business for a long long time.”

It’s the people that count

Now that Mosaic on a Stick is up and running, Ricke and Greene find that their various daily activities allow them the opportunity to meet a diverse group of people.

“We have both met just the most amazing people,” Ricke said. “And it’s pretty exciting since we’re more than just a store. We get to create this space for people to be creative. And it’s something we’ve noticed people crave. And there are a lot of women helping women.”

Similarly, Lily Beauchamp said that she has met an amazing group of people.

“I have developed such wonderful friendships,” she said. “Everyone seems so friendly.”
Her inspiration to open the store was the desire for a space that would be welcoming of the GLBT community.

“We wanted to create a spot that is friendly and embracing,” she said. “We are nondiscriminatory as to who comes in to shop.”

Wendy Hamilton loves being a business owner because it allowed her flexible hours to work and to raise her children, she said. But she also enjoys meeting the creative people who share the love of her trade.

All in a day’s work

By 9 a.m., Gebretsadik has started her day in the kitchen, cooking food for her restaurant, which opens at 11 a.m. She stays until six or seven in the evening, making sure things run smoothly, she said, but her favorite part is in the kitchen.

“I like to cook the food,” she said. “And I am a good cook.”

The days are more varied for Hamilton at the sewing shop. She spends some days working the sales floor, selling household and industrial sewing machines, and other days drowning in paperwork, she said.

“Some days I’m sure I’m nuts,” she said. “But the sewing industry is a good place for women. Women like to buy sewing machines from other women.”

Hamilton loves her job and knows what is important.

“It’s been a lot of fun, and if it’s ever not fun, I’ll quit,” she said. “You should never work a job you don’t love.”