A new Granville business is seeking to fill a community need while also being a place where everyone is accepted.
One Love Cafe and Bike Shop , a combination cafe and bike shop, opened July 4 at 415 S. Main St., the former home of Granville Lumber Co., which closed in 2020 .
Co-owner Fulya Doslovich said the "OneLove" name is inspired by the role the new business wants to play in the Granville community.
"We want to be a hub for everyone, for people to come here and feel accepted as who they are — doesn't matter their gender, sexuality, color, anything," she said. "We believe that when there's love, then everyone's accepted."
Doslovich owns the shop with her partner, Michael Brown, as well as married couple Oz and Asu Turkmen.
Doslovich said OneLove is three small businesses in one place. The shop fills a community void as Granville's lone bike shop. OneLove sells bikes, helmets, cycling shoes and clothes; offers bike rentals; and does bike repair. The second floor has a seating area that doubles as a private event space for parties or group meetings and can accommodate about two dozen people.
The cafe specializes in Turkish coffees, teas and treats, such as walnut or pistachio baklava.
Doslovich and the Turkmens are all Turkish and wanted to bring their cultural heritage into their business.
"We like that we are able to just bring a little bit of a different culture here and diversity here," Doslovich said.
As part of being a hub for the community, OneLove has already hosted cycling events, with one in honor of Juneteenth on June 17 that brought about 100 cyclists. A couple Fridays a month, OneLove will host evening rides that start on South Main Street, travel through the village and end at another local business. The first ended at Village Wine Co., a locally owned wine shop , and another on Friday ended at Seek-No-Further Cidery.
"We just want to make sure that people know about Granville, people know about small businesses here," Doslovich said.
The cafe and shop are a passion project for all the owners. The Turkmens are professors at Ohio State University , but Oz Turkmen has baked for 20 years as a hobby and wanted to open a cafe. Doslovich, a psychologist at Nationwide Children's Hospital, and Brown are avid cyclists and wanted their own shop in Ohio. Brown has a similar bike shop and cafe business in Philadelphia. So, the two couples decided to pair their ideas together. It took more than a year to renovate the former lumber company space, which is now owned by the Granville Milling Co., Doslovich said.
As a psychologist, Doslovich said, she was driven to open the shop as a way to foster a healthy outlet and way to socialize for all people but especially children.
"When I ride, it's my therapy time," she said. "I might be doing therapy at work, but when I ride my bike, it's just 'me time,' and the only thing I have to focus on is the road and the pedaling, which is a great mindfulness (activity). You have to be mindful of just what is happening right there and then."
Kurt Levy, a OneLove employee, said he first started repairing bikes in 1989 and also worked in retail management, but OneLove is different because the ownership team is sharp, intelligent and caring.
"It's very refreshing. It is not a typical bike shop by any stretch of the imagination," he said.
OneLove Cafe and Bike Shop hours
OneLove is open seven days a week, with the cafe open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and the bike shop open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Once cycling season ends in the fall, OneLove will likely close on Mondays, Doslovich said.
mdevito@gannett.com
740-607-2175
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: 'A hub for everyone': OneLove Cafe and Bike Shop opens its doors in Granville
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