Age Is But A Number: The Golden Hobby Shop

In the process of making our on-the-whim trip to the 2014 Village Lights holiday event in German Village (please see this post to read about some of the sights we encountered), my spouse had remembered a gift store in the neighborhood that featured arts and crafts of metro area senior citizens that she wouldn't mind visiting if we found their location during our event wanderings. This turned out to be the Golden Hobby Shop, and both my spouse and I ended up quite pleasantly surprised at what we found.

Founded in 1971 in the King-Lincoln neighborhood, this non-profit venture operated as a consignment shop catered toward the sale of handmade arts and crafts created by area senior citizens (currently, anyone who is 50 years of age or older can become a consignor of the shop.) The shop located a decade later to their current location in German Village when they outgrew their original space. With help from the City of Columbus (the shop is currently run through the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department) they took over and helped renovate the Old Third Street School in their current neighborhood to handle their operations. The shop had been threatened with closure by city budget cuts in 2009, but a deal between the shop's board of trustees and the city allowed the shop to operate with a minimal subsidy from the city and a lot of volunteer help.

These crafts, found in the main retail area, were just the tip of the iceberg

When my spouse had visited the shop several years ago, she seemed to remember a fairly select amount of goods for sale on a single level of the property. On this visit, we were surprised to learn, with the help of one of the shop's friendly volunteers, that there were multiple rooms with arts and crafts on two levels of the building. The main space itself would be considered a goodly-sized retail gift store by many standards and contained a cornucopia of items: greeting cards, mounted drawings, doll-sized clothing, assorted home goods and numerous sports-related tchotchkes were just the tip of the iceberg of what we would find during our wanderings here.

As we moved to the other rooms, we found even more items, holiday-related and otherwise, than we could have possibly imagined prior to this visit. These handcrafted products we examined covered all manner of themes, styling and uses. And while the items are all produced by senior members of the community, their appeal and practicality was hardly restricted to older folks.

Another thing that became quite obvious was the affordability of many of the items. While there are items that reach into the triple digits price-wise, we mutually agreed that many of the items offered for sale seemed quite affordable, if not close to a proverbial steal, based on the listed price.

The Golden Hobby Shop is currently open on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 AM through 5 PM, with additional Sunday hours from 12 noon to 5:00 PM, now until Christmas Day (they will shutdown afterward until the end of January to perform inventory and space cleaning.) If you are looking for a handcrafted item with a bit of a personal touch for that special someone or someones this holiday season, at a price that may have you do a double-take because it seems like such a bargain, this now 40-plus-year institution of the Columbus is as good a place to start as any.

Golden Hobby Shop
630 South 3rd Street (German Village)
Columbus, OH
(614) 645-8329
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Coming Attractions: The Roosevelt Coffeehouse

Roosevelt Coffeehouse's business front and logo

The Roosevelt Coffeehouse has a unique and noble mission; as stated on their Facebook page, this coffeehouse is "built to fight the worldwide & local injustices of hunger, unclean water, sex trafficking, and slavery." After being on the local dining radar in concept since early 2014, the opening of this downtown-located non-profit business is finally within sight.

I was able to stop by for their last week's pop-up before final construction was due to start at their 300 East Long Street location and found extremely hosts and a space that promises to be a welcoming spot for visitors.

Founder Kenny Sipes was manning the pop-up on this day and was more than happy to give the details on their space and the mission of Roosevelt. As with other previous pop-ups and proceeds earned after the official opening, all proceeds earned at this pop-up will be donated to various worthy causes with an emphasis on transparency.

Sipes and his son Ethan were more than happy me and other visitors this day through the unfinished area where the main cafe space will go. This main space itself is very roomy and promises to be quite bright and sunny due to the ample window area.

As far as the coffee, Roosevelt has decided to use the beans of Stumptown Coffee out of Portland, Oregon for their brews. Recently, the coffeehouse announced that Destination Donuts will be offered at their location when they open; other items such as cupcakes and gluten-free baked goods are also in the works.

Though construction is currently in progress, fundraising to allow Roosevelt to buy some much needed equipment for daily operation is currently underway until November 17; you can score yourself a pretty nice-looking T-shirt or sweatshirt in the process. Details can be found at their Facebook page at this link here.

Coffee-lovers can look for the Roosevelt Coffeehouse to open its doors to the public sometime either late December this year or early January 2015.

Roosevelt Coffeehouse
300 E. Long St. (Downtown)
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 571-7554
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