Events like game nights, book clubs, parties and small weddings now have a new venue downtown to consider.
Main St Scoops and Sweets owners Stacie and Mark Blubaugh are turning the old location of Fuse Candle Bar into a new event venue called The Gathering Place.
Stacie Blubaugh said she wants the space at 714 Main St, Ste. 101 to be versatile and used for a variety of events. The space will have a 60-person capacity and be furnished with circular tables and chairs. It will also have a 7.2-foot wooden arch for pictures.
“It’ll be a very movable, kind of, living, breathing, changing room,” she said.
Blubaugh said she created The Gathering Place because it’s hard to host birthday parties in Main St Scoops and Sweets during the busier season. She also said she wants to create a space where people can do something fun without having to leave town, especially since The Lodge is no longer an option.
“I feel like there’s a real need, and I feel like we can do some other fun things,” Blubaugh said.
She said she originally wanted to create an event space in the room above the ice cream shop, but it required too much construction, like a new accessible bathroom. When the Fuse space became vacant, the Blubaughs saw an opportunity. Building owner GW Weld said they reached out to him.
“There’s been a loss of event space with The Lodge closing,” Weld said. “And they were kind of interested in doing some type of partnership to provide some community event space.”
Main St Scoops and Sweets will host its own events, Stacie Blubaugh said, but the space is also available for rent.
On weekdays, which include Friday until 3 p.m., The Gathering Place will cost $60 an hour for a minimum of two hours.
From Friday after 3 p.m. until Sunday, rent for the space will be $90 an hour for a minimum of three hours. Weekend packages are also available.
The space is available for rent from 6 a.m. until 12 a.m. on the weekends and 11 p.m. on the weekdays.
People can bring their own food for events, but they can also purchase an ice cream, cake or charcuterie board from Main St Scoops and Sweets. Those who purchase treats from Main St Scoops and Sweets will get $10 off their hourly rate.
“It’ll kind of be an incentive to use us,” Blubaugh said. “And if they don’t, that’s fine.”
One of the first events at The Gathering Place will be an Ice Cream for Breakfast Day party on Feb. 7. She also said they’re planning a Valentine’s Day event, too.
“We are going to open that up and have tables set up so people can just go in there, see the space,” she said.
She would love to do a Mom’s Morning Out event, too.
“They could drop the kids here and go down to Zeb’s or go shopping or whatever during the weekday, just to get people familiar with the space,” she said
The Gathering Place will also have a suggestion box where people can leave event ideas.
“If it’s an event that, you know, there’s no events booked on a Friday night or whatever, like, ‘What would you guys like?’” Blubaugh said. “So we’re just going to ask for feedback from the community on what they’d like to see.”
Blubaugh said she wants to keep The Gathering Place open indefinitely. The Blubaughs have not yet signed a lease on the property but hope to by the summer.
She said she told Weld she could not sign a lease in January because of her daughter’s illness and because Main St Scoops and Sweets is in its slow season.
“I’ve got, you know, to take care of my daughter and just take care of some other things,” she said. “So I said, ‘Would you be willing to work together with this?’”
Weld said he thought it was a good opportunity.
“For the first few months, we’re just going to kind of do it as a partnership where I provide the space and they manage it and just kind of test the waters and see how popular it is,” Weld said.
The Gathering Place is taking reservations beginning Feb 1. Those interested can call Main St Scoops and Sweets at 785-542-0398, email [email protected] or reach out on Instagram to @thegatheringplaceonmainst. The Gathering Place is hosting an open house from 3 to 8 p.m. Jan. 30 and 31.
Reach Bella Waters at [email protected].
