Ava’s Vintage Market is located at 225 E. Main St. in Batavia.
“Ava’s Vintage Market” still under construction, but hopes for a grand opening in March
If you’ve walked around downtown Batavia recently, you may have noticed a new shop that sits on 225 E. Main St., right where Frames On Main used to be. This shop has three important signs in its window. The first of them proudly claims the store to be Ava’s Vintage Market, complete with vintage objects and furniture also in the window.
The second sign that claims that there will be a grand opening in March. If you are luckier, however, you can catch the owners, Joe Letsche and Marie Filippi displaying the shop with the third sign outside that claims that they are open and ready for customers to take a look around before the final pieces are put in place for the shop.
The Clermont Sun had an inside look into the interior, and interviewed the owners.
When asked what kinds of items would be on sale at this location, Letsche replied that they would mostly be selling “vintage furniture, art, [and] clothing. Also some contemporary, more modern furniture.”
Sure enough, the store is already filled with vintage pieces that one would be interested in buying, such as paintings, posters, furniture, and even shifting into smaller items such as technology or vintage collectibles. There are prices on various items, mostly the paintings, but they are not on every item in the store. This is because the store is in its early stages, with the owner still needing some time to print tags for the items.
The items are already assorted in the shop based on category. For example, most of the furniture such as couches and seats are in the largest room of the building, while tour posters line another wall which has mostly music and entertainment items, such as an 8-track player and corresponding 8-track tapes.
Currently, there is also a donation box right next to an electric kettle with assorted tea and coffee flavors that you can make while browsing. These funds go towards a non-profit organization.
Another welcome addition to this store is the interest in local art and support for small businesses. Letsche remarks that he would like to feature “local artists, local craftsmen, local anything.”
Possibly the most ambitious project of this location is the possibility of a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich bar located inside the building. When asked, guru Lety Latinovich, explained that it would be “a variety of unique combinations of different jams, fruits, peanut butter, and possibly different breads.”
When asked about how quickly it would open, Letsche replied that they would “like to have it open in the next six months. I wanna see how the store does first before we invest in that.
“I’ve always wanted a mom-and-pop shop. Just moved to Batavia about a year ago, ready for something new in life, and decided to go for it,” Letsche explains.
This opening comes at a time when there are not many retail shops in Batavia. Most of the businesses are either services or official buildings. Letsche remarks about Batavia that “most of the automobile traffic here is for the county buildings. It’s not really a retail town. Although it looks like it might be headed in that direction.”
The opening could definitely boost popularity and more retail stores in Batavia, especially with the University of Cincinnati Clermont only about a five-minute drive away.
We hope that this store has an easy opening and that the people of Batavia and UC Clermont can go take a look at it sometime.