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Ashley has two how old are they 11 and six and our guest Thresa you have how many two how old are they two and six oh my gosh
How you parents do it bless you both. I have no idea
Having kids though doesn't mean you have to sacrifice going out at recess cafe and downtown Ann Arbor
Young kids can play while parents work and socialize and it's the feature on our downtown with the main street area
Association the work and play at recess cafe as we welcome today back with us Ashley Schaefer executive director of the main street area
Association you are such a good mom. I follow you on social and you're so involved with all of your kids activities
And it's amazing and you know when you talk about working moms
I firmly believe moms who stay at home are working moms as well
But I think that added element of having a job as well is yeah
It's really hard. It can be tough. I have a great job though. I have a lot of flexibility
So I get to be more present in their lives. It's just such a blessing
Yeah, and I think that's really key is
Businesses have to be flexible in today's world
Well joining us today is Thresa Nichols. She is the founder of recess cafe. Born on a necessity, right? Yeah. Oh my gosh
This all come to be for you
Um, I think like a lot of good ideas they come from slightly grumpy women
I feel like it could be better and grumble about it and hope somebody will make it and then finally I was like
Screwed. I'll do it myself
And I think that's how it kind of began and you kept it downtown Ann Arbor, which is beautiful
Yeah, we went back and forth. Do we need you know? I got feedback. Oh, you're gonna have to be outside of downtown
You're gonna need a parking lot. You're gonna need um that element and
The longer I thought about it's like but I'm a downtown mom. I'm a cargo bike mom
I want to go to nice dinners. I want to be in the energy and there was nowhere like that
And now with all the build up in downtown and all of the people that
Uh city council hopes will come to downtown with the new builds and all of that
It really makes sense because a lot more families are going in there too
Yeah, I mean there is a somewhat common misconception like Ann Arbor's greatest shrinking population is family aged is
Is our family age group um, and so we see that it's it's a challenge
And so how can we make Ann Arbor more friendly while we have so much build up coming a lot of that downtown isn't geared towards families or people with children
Um, a lot of it doesn't you know allow you to own a lot of its rentals, which is great
We need more concentrated housing
But how can we still make downtown a place for families? Yeah, so families come downtown, right? Yeah
That's something actually you want because we have a lot of amenities downtown for people to visit we do
We do and a lot of our programming last year
We really tried to incorporate more family-friendly events to get families downtown so that they can bring their kids
And they don't have to get a babysitter and leave them at home
They should experience all these fun things too. So where is recess cafe located?
So recess cafe is on the corner of Ashland and Washington
So right across from sweet water, uh, you know kind of kitty corner from grizzly peak is it part of the downtown home and garden the old
Separate owners, but aesthetically, I think you would think it's the same building
I'm just gonna give you an idea of where you're where you are. Yeah, what's the concept here? What is this like?
Yeah, so uh, I really was looking for a way to sort of like be a whole person. I wanted
Good wine. I wanted good snacks. I also didn't want my kids to feel like a nuisance because I
Like my kids like I want them around I enjoy them um, but a lot of the spaces that are made for them first
Aren't necessarily also made for me first
So recess is a paid-of-play model, which helps us sort of justify having such a large part of the real estate dedicated to the kid friendly area and the family play area
But we also have sort of an event space that you can use off that we host community events and
You can come in get a cup of coffee while your kid plays you can come and get a glass of wine while your kid plays before your reservation
Opens up at money, you know um, and then we also have a lot of people who don't have kids at all the the vibes are really nice
It's a really welcoming space. We have big tables, which is hard to find in a coffee shop
And so we have a lot of people who just come and study college students and things like that
So what's the financial model for this business model it as far as do you pay to come in or?
So you just pay for the child playing and so that helps us monitor the capacity in the play area
And then obviously for your food and and things like that
But we also have memberships and play passes that can follow the child
So we'll have one family will purchase a membership for their child and
Grandma babysits on Tuesdays and brings the kid during the day and gets a cup of tea with her girlfriend
And then Friday night mom and dad go out to dinner
They have 30 minutes to kill before their reservation and they go and let their child play for a little bit before walking out
So it's really fluid. That's great and the play area. What's in it?
Yeah, so we have a play platform with a twirly slide. We have these great
Buildable cushions that kids end up making forts out of and little hidey holes
We have sort of this honeycomb climbing structure that has a little car
We have a makeshift pizza oven in our kitchen that the kids crank stuff through
adorable
So is it within line of sight of where the parents are sitting them? Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, so there is sort of you know a sectioned off area to kind of help flow
The flow of traffic, but you can essentially see your child
Anywhere you might be sitting. Okay, so if you bring your kids for this at recess cafe
What is the cost if you were just doing it for one time only? 10 dollars an hour. Oh, okay. Yeah
That's great. Yeah. Yeah, is that for per kid or per child?
And then we have discounted rates as you get up into higher kids
And as you stay for longer and then it probably makes sense financially to purchase some of those passes though
Yeah, the passes are the best way to go if you think you're gonna be coming more than once a week or not even you
But if you think your child has the opportunity to come more than once a week with you
Grammar grandpa cool aunt whatever
It is more economical than purchase the passes. Yeah, there you go
So what did you think Ashley when you went down there for the first time? I heard about this from you
Yeah, it's actually I thought it was great
So my children are six and eleven and I was saying that my six-year-old I think is still very much a playable area
But for her and my eleven-year-old who really enjoys coffee and you know
She could read words and things like that
She could come and hang out with me and just like adore all the babies and children because she's also
Mama so and what kind what kind of snacks do you have there?
Yeah, so a lot of pastries. We're actually rolling out a summer menu which will have
handheld sandwiches like pesto grilled cheese and
Salami and cheese things like that
um, I would say more snacky styles
um, but then the summer we also plan to have a
Sort of walk up window where people can grab things to go and walk around and Ashley's been a great help with kind of helping us
Figure out how to do that. That's wonderful
We're talking with Thresan Nichols. She is the founder and owner of recess cafe work and play cafe
You called us a third place. I'm not familiar with that term. What does that mean? So it's not home
It's not work, but you're going to waste some time. So homes first
Homes first place work is second place
Yeah, and this is fun place. Yeah, we see these other locations where people end up for some people
It's church, you know for some people it might be a community or a rec center
And so this is another one of those options
Where you can spend time outside of your home outside of your job with your work as a whole family
located at 208 south Ashley street in downtown Ann Arbor parking is available at first and here on lot
The south Ashley lot
Street parking is also an option with free parking on Sundays and your hours are you open?
Seven days a week or yeah, we are open seven days a week and that was really important parents need to
It's just heart. You know you're you finally had realize you have a free moment and you want to know you can go somewhere
Right, so you're open on weekend Saturday Sunday till seven p.m
And that gives enough time that like you said if you have that reservation later in the evening
You can do this ahead of time and relax and yeah, it's kind of like happy hour
Exactly and open till six p.m. Sunday through
Thursdays
At this great new location is this a model you saw somewhere else or did you just dream this up?
No, I am not unique. These are popping up everywhere
But I will say one
The thing that was missing for me was a lot of models like this offer like more single-serve food in plastic
They're more like child first
And I was like I want to hold a real dish. I'm an adult in my kid can handle it. Yeah, I want to hold a real class. I want
A higher quality of what's being served in spaces like this so it is it's almost like adult first
With space for the kids and a small way this reminds me growing up in Ann Arbor
There used to be a department store called good years. It's in the good year building there
downtown and up on the I want to say it was the second or third floor
There was a little area with a little white picket fence around it and it was a play area for kids
So when moms and dads would go shopping there
They would drop us off on that floor and this was back on the day when you didn't have to worry about where
Your kid was going to be drop you off there and they would do all the shopping and we loved it
You want to go shopping downtown? Yes
Because we knew we were going to play and that's kind of what this concept is like you are not the first person to bring
Is this up to me? No, I love hearing that because even as I hear it. I'm like
I'll leave my kids there
Lovely as a mom. No, I'm like that sounds like such a nice
When I'm free shopping
I know I have such great memories of that
Wonderful. That's fabulous. Another great addition to downtown Ann Arbor recess cafe
You can go online to recess.cafe and find out more information
r-e-c-e-s-s.cafe-c-a-f-e. What else is happening in downtown actually? So we are busy planning for ladies night out
Which will be really exciting. It'll be May 16th and we are accepting um, you know businesses
You're looking to participate whether you're a member or not
And that is just a great night for moms to head out downtown. When is this? This is Saturday May 16th. Okay
Mark your calendars ladies. It's going to be a lot of fun
Yes, and we are partnering with some of our downtown hotels
So if you go on our website you'll be able to get a special rate for that evening
So if you're going out to girlfriends
Um, you can book a hotel downtown so you don't have to drive or you can just sleep in if you want to
Mainstreetanarbor.org for more information
Mainstreetanarbor.org all their members are on there as well
Like recess cafe and you can access them through Mainstreetanarbor.org
But recess.cafe online check it out for your families out there
What a great new addition in downtown Ann Arbor. Thank you so much
Wonderful idea Thresa. Yeah, thank you. We love it. A lot of fun for the kids
Thresa Nichols the founder along with Ashley Schaeffer from the Mainstreet area association
On Ann Arbor's talk station 1290 WLBY
The Lucy Ann Lance Show



