By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
A long-vacant storefront downtown has been filled by a familiar face. Evergreens Coffee and Bakeshop has relocated to 9 South Washington St. in historic downtown Oxford.
“The Home of the Bagel Bomb” was previously tucked just a few blocks away inside the Merge Studio and Gallery at 33 Pleasant St. where it first opened in March 2016. Now it has its very own space.
“We’re just expanding the businesses, we want to have more space and more visibility by being out on M-24,” said the owner, Angie Green.
A grand re-opening is slated for this Saturday, Oct. 24. The event will last all day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with live music from local artists from 4 to 7.
The new location occupies the space between Blue Ivy and Boulevard Boutique, the former home of Sweet & Savory Bake Shop before it closed two and a half years ago. Green has spent the last couple months fixing the place up, putting in new flooring, wall décor, paint and tile.
The new building has a large kitchen space, which will make it easier to expand the menu of baked goods, cheese cakes, soups, sandwiches, and its signature: the Bagel Bomb.
Bagel Bombs are made-from-scratch bagels that are stuffed with an ounce of plain cream cheese and assorted sweet and savory items, including fruit, bacon, jalapenos, scallions, cheese, eggs, ham and sausage.
The shop had been hoping to relocate for over a year in order to scale up its Bagel Bomb production. Prior plans to move into a development on Mill St. fell through when the developer had difficulty completing the project.
2020 has been especially difficult for Oxford businesses like Evergreens, with M-24 construction on top of the coronavirus. “It’s challenging, but our community has really been great at supporting us,” Green said.
Evergreens closed for six weeks during the coronavirus shutdowns this spring. Then when they closed the old location at the end of September, the shop went without business for another three weeks. “I feel very confident that they’ll be back,” Green said of her customers.
The café is expanding its regular hours. It will be open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday; 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays; and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.