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Massage Cafe De-stresses Downtown Workers
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The operators of Massage Café aim to relieve the stress of downtown workers with their new location here.
Massage Café Downtown opened in the basement level of the Peggy Ann Building, says Gina DeAngelo, who owns both the original Massage Café in Canfield and the new downtown site. The new store is below the Friends Roastery operating on the ground-floor level.
“Obviously there are a lot of people that live and work downtown and that’s our target market,” said Steve Wishnewski, managing therapist at the downtown location. “We specialize in working with people who work hard and play hard,” he added.
Massage Café had been offering onsite massages at Turning Technologies, just a few blocks away on West Federal Street from its downtown location, and several employees requested more frequent -- and longer -- sessions. “That was much of the driving force in putting a permanent space downtown,” DeAngelo said.
"We were finding it was a problem for people who know us in Canfield to get there from work downtown," she added. The Canfield location opened in May 2011. “It’s no fair to have a nice, relaxing massage and then get back on the highway. This should be a good fit for downtown workers.”
The owners of Friends Roastery, one of whom is a client of Wishnewski, had been looking to lease space in Peggy Ann. “They had more space than they needed and we got together with them [and] came to an arrangement,” he said.
“We hope that they do well. It’s a great little space,” said Mitch Lynch, who with his wife, Patricia Tinkler, owns the Friends Roastery shops here and in Salem. “In Salem we’ve incubated about seven or eight businesses,” he said. He and his wife are hoping to promote a “healthy atmosphere” downtown.
The downtown Youngstown space features two full-sized treatment rooms with tables and a smaller room for chair massages. “So if somebody wants to come in on their lunch break or right before or after work and only has five to 15 minutes, we can put them on a chair,” Wishnewski said. “Our two large treatment rooms are for full sessions on a table which would be anywhere from 20 minutes up to an hour and a half,” he said.
“If you just need 15 minutes to get that thing out of your shoulder, we can do that in 15 minutes and you don’t need to get undressed,” DeAngelo said.
The space also features locally produced art. “Everything that will be on this wall will be for sale by those individual artists," Wishnewski said. Art on the opposite wall includes works by Wishnewski that aren’t for sale. Among the paintings is hisi portrait of Dave Grohl, the Warren native who founded and is lead guitarist and vocalist for the band Foo Fighters.
Hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. “We’re looking to expand our hours, possibly staying later, possibly coming in earlier, to fit the business needs here,” he said.
Business at the downtown location is good so far, DeAngelo reported. “In fact, the better the weather gets, the more interest we get,” she said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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