Nichole Aksamit, OWH wrote:A funny thing happened at a business auction in Benson this week: In a split-second decision neither anticipated, two food-loving strangers combined fortunes and futures and left as the new owners of Joe's Cafe.
Budding food entrepreneur Cynthia Zych and El Aguila owner Arturo Resendiz shared the winning $45,100 bid for the breakfast and lunch business at 6564 Maple St. They're to close on the sale later this month.
Zych (pronounced “zeek”) said she drove to the auction Tuesday with a figure in her head — the amount she knew she could spend on the business without getting a loan. Since being laid off by Pamida last January, Zych has been using a commercial kitchen in Bellevue to produce a line of salsas for local grocery stores and scouting spots for a commercial kitchen or small eatery of her own.
She said she recognized Resendiz as the owner of El Aguila, the popular Mexican restaurant on Vinton Street, when he walked in to register for the auction. But the two had never met. And he seemed more like foe than friend when the bidding began.
“He was standing in front of me, and he wouldn't stop bidding. I was giving him dirty looks,” Zych said. “At one point, he turns to me and says: ‘Do you want to work this place? I don't want to work any more than I already do. . . . Want to split it?'”
Nichole Aksamit, OWH wrote:The Benson spot has been home to Joe's Cafe since 1959 and a restaurant since at least 1942.
As a Benson resident, I will miss Joe's. A lot. Leo's is very good, but Joe's was far better for the breakfast. I don't know what the new owners plan on doing with the restaurant, but I will go out on a limb and assume that it will become a Mexican restaurant. While that is certainly preferable to another vacant storefront, it will never be "Joe's".
Nichole Aksamit, OWH wrote:Joe’s Cafe is set to reopen next month with new owners, and they aren’t the pair who shared the winning bid at an auction of the Benson breakfast and lunch spot in February.
The original bidders, Cynthia Zych and Arturo Resendiz, didn’t ultimately close on the sale. They hit a few snags during negotiations and withdrew their offer, Zych said. The business was returned to the listings at Omaha-based Auction Solutions and got a new offer last week.
The sale to Mick Goslin and Beth Hersh closed on Tuesday. Goslin said he and his business partner are planning a grand opening April 2 and 3 and a soft opening sometime between now and then.
Goslin said Joe’s will reopen with the same name, hours and concept, with a little updating and plans for dinner hours and an outdoor patio down the line. “It’s the same person, different uniform,” he said.
Goslin, owner of Goslin Contracting Inc., said this is a first restaurant for him and Hersh, a registered dietitian. But both have restaurant experience. He said he cooked years ago at the A-Ri-Rang Club, a private club in Ponca Hills. And Hersh, he said, gained restaurant experience working at the Yo-Yo Grille and Market Basket.
Goslin said Hersh will head up the baking and cooking. He said they’ll incorporate some of their own specialties (including cinnamon rolls based on family recipes that date to the 19th century) and “bringing back a lot of tradition.”
The space at 6564 Maple St., closed since mid-January, has been home to Joe’s Cafe since 1959 and a restaurant since at least 1942
Yesterday was their grand opening. Where I work is about 2 blocks from there and several people were raving about the burgers they got there on Friday.
Nichole Aksamit, Omaha World-Herald wrote:Joe’s Cafe, the longtime Benson eatery that closed in January and hit a few snags on the auction block before reopening in April, closed again earlier this month.
Mick Goslin, who purchased the business with Beth Hersh, said one of the two property owners verbally agreed to lease terms but failed to sign the lease agreement and abruptly changed the locks one night about two months after the April relaunch.
Nichole Aksamit, Omaha World-Herald wrote:Ramm said a new tenant, Jose Palomares, plans to open a similar breakfast-and-lunch cafe in the Joe’s space next month
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