Lolas’ at the Inn Celebrates One Year

By Kenzie Ogden, Sydney Leyerle, Bryce Crossman, Kennedy Conger and Brian Weah

On Feb. 26, Lolas’ at the Inn celebrated their one-year anniversary with a ribbon cutting event the whole community could attend.

To celebrate their first year in business, Lolas’ held a ribbon cutting ceremony where the owners and others involved with the coffee shop could reflect on their experience from the past year. The store also had discounts on drinks and food, and local business, Paul’s Pies, was also there.

“I can’t believe we’re already at one year,” Krista Brown, Lolas’ co-owner, said. “It’s just crazy. And I feel like it was just a moment ago that Andrea and I were talking, dreaming about what the space would look like and what we would be serving.”

Looking back on the past year, Brown and co-owner, Andrea Vinluan, reflected on what they have learned from the year and what they hope to accomplish next. 

“It’s encouraging to know that we’re here, to be able to see where we are at one year, to be able to take stock of the ways that we have already impacted the community and to be hopeful about the coming years,” Vinluan said. 

Both Brown and Vinluan said they have plans to make updates to the shop, including expanding their front porch and utilizing the backyard. They said they hope to encourage more outdoor seating and to begin hosting events in the backyard.

Building community is important to Brown and Vinluan and they said they have gotten a lot of community support over the past year and hope to continue to grow their outreach.

“Well, our dream has always been about building community and a place where people can feel like they belong,” Brown said. “A place where they can rest and those kinds of things.”

To grow in their community involvement, Darrell Thompson, a business partner for Lolas’, said they have become involved with Indiana Wesleyan University and worked towards reaching out to other businesses and platforms.

“One of the things that we have done is we’ve made large on our involvement with IWU, which we’re very pleased to do, glad to be a partner with them,” Thompson said. “We have reached out as far as doing more advertising, reaching out to more platforms that come in with reservations and things of that nature.”

Support from the community has been positive and Vinluan said she was encouraged to see the turnout and support Lolas’ had for their one-year celebration. 

“I think the other thing that I love about it is we love being part of the community,” Vinluan said. “And so having the community turnout today was really exciting and really shows what God is doing in and through this business.”