When Sheila Stevens arrived in Hollister nearly 25 years ago,
the first thing she noticed was the downtown. The old clock tower,
the small quaint shops, and the small town love of the people. To
her, it was instantly home.
See this full story and others in Tuesday’s annual special
section,
”
Pride in Place,
”
featuring many local residents.
When Sheila Stevens arrived in Hollister nearly 25 years ago, the first thing she noticed was the downtown.
The old clock tower, the small quaint shops, and the small town love of the people. To her, it was instantly home.
“They say you can’t go home again – well, they’re wrong,” she said.
Stevens grew up in the similar small town of Santa Paula in Southern California. In both cities, the heart of the town is the downtown, Sheila believes.
“Everyone goes through downtown,” she said. “It’s the soul of the town, if it’s doing good – the town is.”
And it’s that reason why she has such a strong focus on the downtown.
For more than 18 years, Sheila Stevens and her husband Bob Stevens have had a store downtown. It started with the She’s clothing shop in a small retail space – which has since moved and expanded. The store eventually evolved into a neighboring He’s.
After He’s closed years ago, the pair, with just one store in downtown, opened Knife and Fork Cafe in 2008. Despite never running a restaurant before, the business has become “very successful,” Bob Stevens acknowledged. In particular, it has become one of the hottest spots in San Benito County for a cozy lunch, or relaxing dinner.
“It’s been very good to us,” he said. “People seem to like it.”
And later this month, the pair hopes to expand their food service business, opening Heavenly Bakery in the building that used to house Elegant Touch. After the Elegant Touch closed last year, Bob Stevens believed the building would be a good spot for a bakery, and all it took was sharing the thought with his equally ambitious wife.
“It was his fault – not mine,” she said. “He said, ‘That would make a great bakery, wouldn’t it?’ I went ‘ding, ding, ding,'” Sheila Stevens said. “I immediately called the owner of the place, who was in Gilroy, and said … I immediately called the landlord and we went over there and checked it out, and thought it was a good deal.”
See the full story in the special “Pride in Place” section in Tuesday’s Free Lance. Pick up a copy next week.
