Wetumpka Preparing for Downtown Improvements
With the cutting of a ribbon, The Coosa Cleaver is open in downtown Wetumpka.
It sits on Company Street, in a building with a lot of history. The restaurant has seen many different owners and has gone through a number of name changes, first opening its doors in 1909.
“It’s been I guess you could say, like a small treasure hunt day by day,” Coosa Cleaver co-owner Ryan Friday says. “You know, going through the building and just finding new elements and then trying to keep as many of those as possible.”
Friday says he chose the downtown area because of improvements city organizations are making to the area.
“We really started digging in to the market here and opportunities with the Downtown Redevelopment Authority,” Friday says.
Wetumpka mayor Jerry Willis says he has high hopes for the new year, with new businesses, like the Coosa Clever, opening.
“It’s a great day for us, we’re excited,” Willis says. “Our downtown is to bring it back and revitalize our downtown and make it active again and vibrant and productive for our city.”
Groups including the city, the Downtown Redevelopment Authority, and Main Street Wetumpka are all working on improvements to spruce the downtown area.
“One of the the things just across the street here is a mural that we recently had commissioned,” Main Street Wetumpka Board President Dennis Fain says. “There’s an alley way there that we’re cultivating as a small park area. ”
Fain says the park will include an area for live music and will be close enough that people can eat at the downtown restaurants.
The City predicts new businesses will soon be filling empty buildings..
“If not, these buildings would just sit here and dry up,” Mayor Willis says.
Friday says he and his family are excited for whats to come, after seeing his restaurant fill up with local people, ready for lunch.
“We looked at that years ago and we missed the boat, I guess you could say, so we jumped on this ship,” Friday says.
Friday says the Coosa Clever will offer a variety of burgers, salads, flatbreads, shrimp and grits, and tacos. Some items won’t be immediately available, as the menu will evolve.
The Clever will open Sunday through Thursday 11-9, and until 10 on Friday Saturday.
The city of Wetumpka’s next downtown revitalization is a sidewalk resurfacing project set to begin later this spring along South Main Street on the east side of Bibb Graves Bridge.
