Ryan Prather says he’s been wanting to have his own business for a long time.
“It’s been a dream for a long time for us, for me, specifically,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time. Twenty years. I’ve been wanting to have my own business and put this up. I’m really excited about this.”
Ryan, along with his wife, Kim, are the new owners of Gem City Junction, at the corner of Jackson and Clinton streets in downtown Frankfort. They celebrated with a ribbon cutting on Friday.
However, getting the business almost didn’t happen.
“We found out that (the former business owner) Phyllis had already chosen someone else,” Ryan said. “The deal unfortunately fell through. We went and started talking to them about it and just rolled with it. We closed on the deal at the end of August and got open a month later.”
Gem City Junction features a wide variety of coffee specialty drinks along with some snacks, sweets, bagels and brownies.
“We’ve got sandwiches, but they are more grab and go sandwiches,” Ryan said. “They are in the cooler. You’ve got to heat it up in a microwave at your business or home. We’ve got a microwave here. You can heat it up here.”
Ryan added they are planning to add fountain drinks in the near future plus some other exciting things coming in the spring.
Gem City Junction is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and closed Sunday.