LEXINGTON — It’s been almost a decade since a trio of siblings bought an old brick building at 27 E. Main St., transforming it into a beloved coffee shop in the heart of Lexington.
Now, the family business is expanding.
Nickel & Bean will be opening a second location at 1035 South Trimble Road in Mansfield, between the entrance to Akron Children’s Hospital and start of the B&O Bike Trail connector path.
The company purchased the plot, just less than one acre of land, earlier this year.
Siblings and co-owners Shellie Wong, Stacie Elkhoury and Stephen Webster say they hope to break ground by the spring (perhaps earlier, if the weather cooperates) and open sometime in 2027.
“We realize it’s an ambitious announcement, but we definitely want to have goals that are ambitious,” Elkhoury said.
The new shop will serve the same products as the original location, including craft coffee, hot and iced drinks and baked goods. The Lexington shop will continue operating as usual.
Like the first location, the new Nickel & Bean will have both indoor seating and a drive-thru lane. The cafe seating area will be about 2,000 square feet — a similar size to the first floor of the existing coffeeshop.
“With the new construction, hopefully some logistical things will be easier — more parking, a true drive-through instead of a drive-up window, and a bigger kitchen that will hopefully allow us to expand our offerings a little bit more,” Webster said.
“We’ve been dabbling into more of the hearty lunch and afternoon offerings — sandwiches and parfaits and more than just baked goods — here for a while, but we are at max capacity in our current kitchen.”
Wong, who runs the day-to-day operations with her husband Nicky, said any menu additions would be based on the wants and needs of customers — but maintaining the quality of their current offerings is her foremost goal.
“We want to stay true to what we’re good at,” she said.
The siblings all said it will be impossible to replicate the historic charm of the original Nickel & Bean in a new building, but they aim to create a similar atmosphere on Trimbel Road.
“We hope to bring design elements from this building to that building, and for people to very obviously be able to see a new building and say, ‘Oh, that’s Nickel & Bean,'” Webster said.
‘Somebody has to take a leap of faith’
The family has wanted to open a second location for years, but the prospective locations they visited never felt like the right fit.
After opening their flagship location, the team was well aware of the challenges that come with retrofitting an existing building — and having limited space for a drive thru lane.
The family also wanted to avoid moving in near another local coffee shop.
“It was really important to us not to step on the toes of another small business,” Elkhoury said.
The Trimble Road site checked all the boxes.
The acres of cornfields surrounding Akron Children’s were long available, as evidenced by the “for sale” sign, its decal faded and peeling from decades in the sun.
But the family saw potential, given renewed growth across Richland County, the new bike trail connector path and the site’s location on a prime thoroughfare between Lexington, Mansfield and Ontario.
“Somebody has to take that leap of faith,” Elkhoury said.
That stretch of Trimble, which Elkhoury jokingly calls the “medical mile,” is familiar territory for the family. They grew up in a house around the corner. The church they attended as children, the one their grandfather helped build, sits on the corner of Trimble and Cook.
Then there’s Akron Children’s Hospital, where Wong’s son spent his earliest days.
River had a three-month stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, where medical providers used an IV of caffeine to stimulate his heart and brain, giving him the strength to breathe.
The literal lifesaving power of caffeine was a source of inspiration for launching Nickel & Bean soon after.
“It’s been such a great thing to bring us siblings closer and also serve the community that we grew up in and love,” Wong said.
Webster and Elkhoury echoed their sister’s appreciation for Nickel & Bean customers.
“We are incredibly thankful for the support that we have here, and this wouldn’t be possible without the community embracing us,” Webster said. “I don’t think we’re done. There’s more than just Trimble Road brewing.”
