MANSFIELD – Melissa Eber had always dreamed of starting her own cupcake shop, but recently she decided to open a different type of business, one that’s both sweet and savory: Swavory.

Downtown Mansfield’s new gourmet popcorn place and homemade crepe place held its soft opening Friday, May 25 in honor of the first Final Friday Concert in the Brickyard and has planned its grand opening for Monday, June 25.

“I was shocked,” Eber said about her Final Friday experience. “I knew there’d be a lot of people down here, but I didn’t know what business would be like.”

She recalled one customer who described walking around for an hour “trying to find where the smell was coming from.”

Swavory’s menu features 21 flavors of popcorn, sweet and savory crepes, salt water taffy and salads, but she started with popcorn for the soft opening and added the rest by Friday, June 8.

So far, the menu has been a hit, especially the popcorn, Eber said.

Her mother called her with the idea of a popcorn shop about a year and a half ago, after seeing two in Vermilion, but Eber worried she wouldn’t make money on it. She visited dozens of Ohio-based popcorn shops before starting the Mansfield shop, but only found a few making their money off popcorn alone.

This encouraged her to add crepes to the menu. She modeled her recipe on a business at the Westside Market, where she took lessons from the owner.

“I would go there probably once a month and get a crepe. The line is probably 45 minutes long every Saturday,” Eber said.  “And every time I went there, I just kept thinking they need one of these somewhere else.”

The salads and taffy were then added to round out the menu.

“My idea was to have people be able to come now here and get lunch for under $10,” Eber said.

The name Swavory came from combining the words “sweet” and “savory,” after Eber had considered names like “EnJOY Edibles” and “Poppin’ Joy,” which both include her middle name.

“But I wanted it to be just one word, so I mixed up sweet and savory,” she said. “I figured, it’ll intrigue people, bring them in.”

Sweet popcorn flavors include caramel apple, lemon pound cake and Neapolitan, and savory flavors include cheddar pretzel ale, Cincinnati Chili and Buffalo Breath Ranch. Birthday cake, a premium option, has been popular, according to Eber.

Sweet crepe flavors include Oreo Dream, Banana Cream Pie and Apple Crisp, and the savory side of the menu includes (Chicken) Cordon Bleu, Philly Funk and the Bonnie Melt, a mix of ham, turkey and Colby jack cheese named after Eber’s mother.

The most popular salad so far has been one of the sweet options. The Happy Harvest includes romaine lettuce, green apples, pecans, bacon, red onions, dried cranberries, croutons, cheddar cheese and apple vinaigrette.

Eber intends to root the business locally, but hopes to eventually build a website for online sales.

A more short-term goal is to take a week’s vacation next year.

“Eighteen months from the day I opened, I want to be able to take a week’s vacation and have somebody here to run the shop while I’m gone,” Eber said.

Prior to opening Swavory, Eber was working as a production flow manager for Riddell, a football equipment manufacturer in North Ridgeville. Her daily commute to work was one hour and 15 minutes, both ways.

“I didn’t get home until 8 or 9 at night sometimes,” she said.

But coming to Mansfield was her choice. Her husband works in Columbus, and they were looking for someplace in the middle to call home.

“I made a point that every time I went to Columbus on the way home I was going to look at a house,” Eber said.  

Eventually, she stopped in Mansfield and found the house where she and her husband still reside.

Hours at Swavory are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, but they may change as Eber sees customer habits. Swavory will also stay open for events like Final Friday concerts in the Brickyard.

The latest updates will be posted on Swavory’s Facebook page.