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Griffin left Petersburg at 19, but she didn\u2019t leave banking. A career in banking technology ultimately moved her to St. Simons Island, Georgia, where she worked from home until her husband, Taylor, passed away. Wanting to be near family, Griffin moved to Lewisburg and continued working until her employer required her to move to Charlotte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I’m not doing that.\u2019 I decided to cut back and do nothing, which lasted two days,\u201d Griffin said. She dabbled with a booth at a Chapel Hill antique store and worked in its small cafe but often visited Cathey Fullerton at her Junk and Stuff store on Petersburg\u2019s square. Only a few businesses were on the square, and Fullerton always encouraged Griffin to open a cafe nearby. Griffin was discouraged by the size of necessary renovation costs leaving little room for startup funds. Then, in early 2022, a door opened when Fullerton mentioned someone was purchasing and renovating buildings around the square with a vision of seeing life return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo that Sunday at church during silent prayer, I said, \u2018Okay, God, if I’m supposed to do this, you need to give me a sign.\u2019 And I’ve never asked for a sign in my life,\u201d she said. \u201cBut after church, I asked my friend to go out to eat. I said, \u2018Let’s go to Fayetteville, but I want to go to Petersburg first.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n They looked in the store’s windows next to Fullerton\u2019s on the deserted square, but Griffin noticed a man walking around nearby buildings. He was still walking around when they prepared to leave. Griffin suspected he was an investor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She investigated further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said, \u201cSo we drove over, and I said, \u2018Hey, you’re not from here, are you?\u2019 He\u00a0laughed and said, \u2018No, but I bought that building,\u2019 pointing to the old theater, \u2018and I’m attempting to buy these buildings to fix up to get businesses to come back to the square.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And they are coming back! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Miss Jean\u2019s Sandwich and Ice Cream Shop now serves old and new memories in the former Lincoln Service Station building, from which she can see the old drug store and bank buildings of her childhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n All menus and promotional materials extend the invitation. \u201cCome share memories and make new ones,\u201d it reads. And it\u2019s more than good marketing; it\u2019s a reality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI get the most joy looking at the square and seeing it so vital again. There are so many people here and so many cars out there,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cAnd God has sent the best people to work for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pick two from the soup and sandwich menu, enjoy fresh salads, or try the Petersburger, an Angus beef patty with grilled onions, bacon, Havarti cheese, and horseradish cream sauce on a grilled bun.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur best seller is our homemade chicken salad, and a close second is the red, white, and blue salad, which is regular blueberries, strawberries, pecans, and feta cheese with our Fuji apple salad dressing on fresh arugula greens. The thing that makes our sandwiches so good is the homemade bread. All of our sandwiches, including the hamburger buns, are homemade. We grill one side with a little bit of olive oil, and then the other side is left soft, so it’s kind of crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside,\u201d said Griffin. \u201cOur fruit tea is homemade, and all our sodas are bottled. We have eight different kinds of ice cream, and we can make a milkshake or a sundae with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Griffin treasures seeing the rejuvenation of Petersburg outside her shop window with a team that feels like family already. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the fact that God sent me some really, really good people. And I couldn’t do it without them. I literally could not do it without them,\u201d she said. GN <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PETERSBURG HAS been a drive-through town for too long \u2014 not for lack of community, but for a shortage of places to shop, eat, and gather. Marsh\u2019s Department Store, Ed Scott\u2019s Grocery, W.W. Gill\u2019s Hardware Store, First National Bank of Petersburg, Ellis Drugstore, Bettie\u2019s Beauty Salon, and others once dotted the square. Then, for many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/miss-jeans-2-1024x683.jpg\")
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