301-24 Breakfast YUMMY!!!

GAINESVILLE SUN ARTICLE 8/31/2008

Cup o' nostalgia on U.S. 301
By Amy Reinink
Sun Staff writer



Waldo - His artwork evokes the open road, from the winding intricacies of metropolitan highway systems to the retro cool of an old red truck. The building Roland Wise considers his latest work of art once housed the old Waldo Bank. It’s now home to Wise’s new art gallery and coffee shop, 301-24, which opened Easter weekend and takes its theme from U.S. 301, the road that enchanted Wise as a child growing up in Waldo.


ROB C. WITZEL/The Gainesville Sun

The shop’s namesake is reflected in Roland Wise’s art gallery and coffee shop, 301-24 in Waldo. Wise bought the two-story brick building on a whim in 2006 during a visit home to Waldo from Los Angeles, where he’d been working as an artist and writer.


Wise, who recently moved back to Waldo from Los Angeles, named the coffee shop after State Road 24 and U.S. 301 to give the shop a firm sense of place, and to poke fun at the city’s notoriety for strict traffic patrolling along those roads. Waldo is one of the last remaining AAA-designated speed traps in the country, as bright yellow and black billboards at the entrance of town on U.S. 301 announce.



Wise bought the two-story brick building with periwinkle trim on a whim in November 2006 during a visit home to Waldo from Los Angeles, where he’d been working as an artist and writer. The building, which dates to 1913, sits on southbound SR 24, just south of its intersection with U.S. 301.

Wise in front of his American Flag, 4'x6' mixed media on canvas


“When I was growing up here, the 301-24 interchange was the biggest thing I knew,” Wise said. “As a kid, that overpass was just huge. And in the ’50s, before I-75 and I-95, 301 was it.”

Vintage U.S. 301 and SR 24 road signs deck the shop’s windows. Wise’s personal collection of U.S. 301 memorabilia stretches even farther back to include maps published by U.S. 301 merchants in the 1950s to lure tourists to motels or restaurants along 301 on their way to and from South Florida resorts.


Wise said the road’s legacy lives on years after the construction of the interstate highway system. He credits U.S. 301 for many of the store’s regular customers, from Jacksonville commuters heading south to snowbirds heading north.


“There are, like, hundreds of books about Route 66,” Wise said. “I want a coffee-table book about 301. That’s the more interesting road to me.” Wise said the romance and history surrounding U.S. 301 was part of what drew him home again. “Roads are about creating cities, creating sprawl, about getting the hell out of here, and I was all about that,” Wise said. “Which is ironic, considering that I came back home in the end.”

NEW HOURS
monday 6a-6p (we are shut labor day for a family bbq)
tuesday 6a-6p
wednesday 6a-6p
thursday 6a-6p
friday 6a-12m
saturday 7a-12m
sunday 8a-6p

PHONE US FOR MORE INFORMATION --352-468-1125

VIDEO CLIP from the Gainesville Sun Article 8/31/2008

Artist/Writer opens coffee shop in Waldo

As a boy, Roland Wise and his classmates sneaked cigarettes onto the old Bank of Waldo building's steps, and scratched their names into its red bricks. Two decades after he moved away from Waldo, the two-story red brick building on State Road 24 beckoned Wise home.

Wise, an artist and writer who recently moved back to Waldo from Los Angeles, bought the building after seeing it on sale on a visit home in November 2006 and is renovating it for use as an art gallery and coffee shop. "When I rounded the corner and saw the building up for sale, I said, 'Oh my God, I'm buying that building and I'm moving home,' " Wise said.

In late July, Wise hopes to open 301-24, a play on the two major highways that criss-cross the small city. The building, which was built in 1913, most recently housed an antique store, and has also been home to a hardware store.

Since buying it about three months ago, Wise said he's been spending 16-hour days getting it ready to open. He has preserved the original tile stoop at the entrance, and is in the process of building a courtyard with outdoor seating on the south side of the building. Several of his paintings are hung on the exposed-brick wall inside, and there's gallery space to accommodate several other artists.

Wise has purchased an old U.S. 301 highway sign he plans to display in the store and said he hopes the highway theme will convince drivers to do something they may not have done for years: Stop in Waldo.

"Typically, Waldo has been a victim to all this speed-trap stuff," Wise said. "To hear people in town talk, drivers just fly through here without stopping. I want to give them something to slow down for."

Wise said he hasn't had to do much advertising to spread the word. "My mom's the beautician in town," Wise said. "If you want to start a rumor, you just tell her."

Now that Wise is here, he plans to stay. He's renovating a 2,500-square-foot space upstairs for a living loft for himself. He said the renovation process has reminded him of the benefits of growing up in a small town. "I've gotten green lights from everyone at every step of the process," Wise said. "People have been so supportive. Every day, someone from my past stops in, from old friends to my old babysitter. And every time someone stops by, they say, I can't wait until you're open.' "

Waldo Mayor Louie Davis said he's among them. "We're really looking forward to it," Davis said. "He's making some good improvements over there, and I think it'll add some good positive effects to the town. And Roland, he just moved back to Waldo. We're glad to see him come home."

Amy Reinink can be reached at 352-374-5088 or reinina@gvillesun.com