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Little Raven Creamery prepares to open

Little Raven Creamery replaced Sweet CeCe’s in Campustown in December. The creamery will be open for business in late February or early March. Photo by Little Raven Creamery.
Little Raven Creamery replaced Sweet CeCe’s in Campustown in December. The creamery will be open for business in late February or early March. Photo by Little Raven Creamery.
Meridith Mitchell, owner of Little Raven Creamery, renovated the whole space, replacing fixtures, tiles and tables. Photo by Tori Moses.
Meridith Mitchell, owner of Little Raven Creamery, renovated the whole space, replacing fixtures, tiles and tables. Photo by Tori Moses.

Campustown will welcome a new small business this month that offers soft-served ice cream, cake shakes, dairy-free smoothies and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches.

Little Raven Creamery will be located where the Sweet CeCe’s used to be at 1200 W. Main St and will feature a “vintage-industrial” style, according to owner Meridith Mitchell.

“It’s been quite a transformation of the space,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t change a lot of the actual structure of the space, but the décor is very different. It used to be very bright with bright lights and bright colors, and now it’s … a lot of reclaimed wood and antique pictures and things like that.”

Mitchell said she hopes serving both meals and desserts will attract a variety of people.

“It’s like you eat your food and then you think, ‘Okay, now let’s go for dessert,’ but not everybody wants to do that, and it’s kind of an afterthought sometimes,” Mitchell said. “Also, it’s hard to sustain a business like that [when] it’s really cold, so having food, too, gives more variety.”

Little Raven Creamery will also offer gluten-free bread and vegan cheese as substitutes.

“[The restaurant] appeals to a lot of different diets,” Mitchell said.

Sweet CeCe’s, which sells frozen yogurt, used to operate in the venue until it closed this past December.

“Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough business, so we are going to just focus on one location,” Alyssa Detwiler, an employee at the Sweet CeCe’s in Junction City, said.

However, Mitchell said she doesn’t anticipate that same issue with her creamery.

“I’m not really worried because, to be honest, I think my place is a different concept altogether and a different atmosphere,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be a little bit darker and more comfortable, and having lunch and dinner sandwiches is also going to attract people.”

Mitchell said it was a quick turnaround once Sweet CeCe’s left.

“I literally took it over the same day [Sweet Cece’s moved out],” Mitchell said. “I knew when I walked into the space that we’d be doing a lot of work to the design of the space to change it over … so I was really anxious.”

Mitchell said in order to attract Bradley students; she plans to allow QuickCash payments.

Little Raven Creamery will host a soft opening Feb. 13 where it is open to the public, but it will have a grand opening a few weeks later.

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