Home decor showroom, cafe to open in landmark Atlanta building

A new home-decor studio and showroom featuring Indiana-made products is opening this weekend in Atlanta, along with a cafe and market in the same landmark building.

Father-son duo JR and Nick Roudebush are opening the businesses in the building that once housed Wheelers Restaurant on State Road 37 in the northern Hamilton County community.

Called Mercantile 37, the business is located at the intersection of East 256th Street.and SR 37. The building has a long history in Atlanta, according Mercantile 37’s website.

Cecil Scott opened Scotty’s Inn in the building in 1941, providing a truck stop to travelers between Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. The truck stop offered a pump station, a restaurant and lodging. After Scotty’s closed, the building was sold a few times before a restaurant—called Wheelers—opened in the building in the 1970s. It operated there until the late 1990s when it shut down.

The building has been vacant since.

The Roudebushes have restored and expanded the building and are ready to open Mercantile 37 when they host a grand opening on Saturday.

The showroom will feature custom-made home goods crafted by local artists.

Products include made-to-order lighting, furniture, mantels, surfaces and upholstery as well as a variety of decorative items and gifts, like handmade candles.

The cafe, which will be called Wheelers Cafe and Market, will offer breakfast and lunch fare made from locally-sourced ingredients, including sandwiches, breakfast burritos and pastries. Coffee roasted by Darkside Coffee in Cicero will be available.

Neal and Angie Fine, a couple with a combined 25 years of restaurant experience, will run the cafe. Angie has long been a manager at Bonge's Tavern in the Madison County community of Perkinsville.

Mercantile 37 will closed on Sunday and Monday, open by appointment Tuesday and open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. Saturday hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.