Excited entrepreneurs like Drew Johnson see something special in the town of Waynesburg. When he first moved to town from Tennessee, Johnson said he fell in love with Waynesburg’s small community. He was eager to add his business to the borough.  

Although the community and business owners hope their shops will prosper and profit, this is not always the case. For Drew and Laura Johnson, the owners of the former Coach’s Cafe, the Waynesburg experience isn’t what they had expected.

“We weren’t set up in the way that we were ready for the droughts in Waynesburg,” Drew Johnson said.  “So, in the summertime, when [college students] are on break, or the winter time when you guys are on break, in conjunction with people being on vacation…we just weren’t ready for it.”

After a difficult summer with little foot traffic, Coach’s Cafe has closed indefinitely.

The cafe was open for about a year and was originally managed by Matt Tedrow. In February, Tedrow turned the store over to Drew and Laura Johnson, who owned Waynesburg Coffee Company at the time.  At first, the Johnsons tried to keep both restaurants open for business, but Drew Johnson said running two businesses led to an accidental competition.

“We were having the same morning customers and we were competing,” he said.“It’s not a large enough scale area for that.”  

The owners decided to combine the two businesses into one and kept the name Coach’s Cafe.

Now, accepting that the business is over altogether can be frustrating, Drew Johnson said. University students are only in school 8 of the 12 months, and Drew Johnson said that in the other 4 months, a lot can happen to a business and the economy of a town.

With a wide target audience leaving campus, many small businesses end up relying on a different group of people for sales and activity. Drew Johnson said that he found that the Waynesburg area is a “very complicated business environment.”

“The conversation needs started that we need to diversify our industry,” he said. “Everyone relied on coal – I don’t want to say a heavy reliance, but there was a job dependency on coal and that’s still running, but it’s not as big of a job provider as it was. The industry needs to be diversified. I don’t know if that’s tech or manufacturing.  I think the college could even get involved in that.”

Drew Johnson said he wants “the neighborhood mentality” to come back to the once quaint town where business support each other instead of competing against each other.

As of right now, there are no plans to reopen Coach’s Cafe, but Drew Johnson won’t rule out opening a similar business.

“We are still on the fence and still deciding on what’s going to happen to all that equipment, so not to say there won’t be something similar in its place,” he said.”  “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Drew Johnson fears the closure of his cafe might just be the beginning, with small businesses like his struggling to stay open. He does believe there are choices out there to save them.

“It just take cooperation between the university and the borough to work together and build Waynesburg,” he said. “There is a big misconception that [students] just want to stay up there. I don’t think that’s true.”

Drew Johnson thinks there needs to be more exposure to things that are happening in the community – instead of just up on the hill where the college lies, he said.

Drew Johnson urges others to provide feedback on ways the town can be more involved with Waynesburg University.

In the end, Johnson pushed for collaboration and open mindedness because, “what’s good for Waynesburg is what’s good for Waynesburg University.”