Tucked away in the back half of a long, narrow storefront on Main Street sits Downtown Perk, a coffee shop that also serves lunch, desserts and ice cream. 

Owner Lisa Lee opened Downtown Perk in 2008 after some encouragement from a fellow local business owner.

“We were renovating the building years ago,” she said. “Debbie (Brown, the owner of Enjoy!) was down at the Gilberts building and I kept telling her to come up here to this finished space!…She said if I move up there, you have to put a coffee shop in the back. I was like I don’t know and the more we talked about it she was willing to help me get my feet on the ground and show me the ropes, since she has so much more experience in retail.”

Lee opened the coffee shop in 2008, originally only serving coffee and desserts.

“I found there was such a high demand for lunches,” she said. “Everybody was like, ‘When are you going to serve lunch so after 6 months after I opened we were doing lunch. Not as full as we are now but just basic staples to get things going.”

The menu has since expanded, and now includes salads, grilled Panini sandwiches and salads. The shop also offers daily specials, posted on their Facebook page each morning. They are still a coffee shop though, and feature a house blend and multiple flavored coffees brewed every day, along with an impressive selection of hot and cold espresso drinks.

Simply seeing the inside of the shop is a treat. The walls are decorated with advertisements from past Ashland businesses, along with some other quirky, eclectic artifacts that give Downtown Perk a unique feeling.

“I would describe it as unique, homey, great advertising, lots to look at, lots of history hanging on our walls,” Lee said. “It’s basically how Ashland started with all these businesses that were here, either downtown or local in the community.”

The community, which Lee has been a part of for nearly her entire life, is a big part of her commitment to her coffee shop.

“This is basically to give back to the Ashland people to see where we’ve come from and how far we’ve gone,” she said.

For all the people who write off Ashland’s downtown, Lee responds with an open invitation.

“Everyone talks about how downtown is dying and were trying to move it forward to be progressive,” she said. “I want our community to be involved and be vital and be vibrant and if I can be part of that I think it would be great. I think they need to come down and experience [downtown Ashland] for themselves.

Downtown Perk is open from 7:30-5 Monday through Friday, and 8-3 on Saturday. On September 27th, Downtown Perk will be part of the Serenade on South Street, and will be open until 7.