After being on the market since April 2024, Graham’s 318 Coffeehouse on Third Street in Geneva has been sold to new owners.
The Graham’s Chocolates family – Beckie Untiedt and Jayni and Matthew Wunderlich – announced the June 30 closing on social media.
“We are excited for new ownership and just to see the lights on and people inside the building enjoying it,” Jayne Wunderlich said. “We’re just really excited to breathe new life into the building and see it busy and filled with people again.”
The new owner is Sugar Grove resident Joseph Matty of the Marquette Hamlin Group, who will have the company offices and event space on the second floor, Jayni Wunderlich said.
The building will be renamed The Kate, after Matty’s wife, Katherine. And the first floor tenant will be Bread & Vine, a franchise of a restaurant of the same name in Galena, she said.
Matty said they looked at three properties – one in Aurora, one in Sugar Grove and this one in Geneva.
“The location and its relationship with the community drew me to it to do it,” Matty said of Geneva. “I knew Bob Untiedt. I was in here before the renovation and I bought coffee. I was excited when they finally finished and did the expansion. When you sit here and see families and people walking around, it’s a feel good story.”
Beckie Untiedt and her late husband Robert, co-owners of Graham’s fine Chocolates & Ice Cream at 302 S. Third St., turned the house at 318 S. Third St. into a second business in 2005. It reopened briefly in 2020 after a renovation but then closed again because of COVID-19 and eventually closed for good in 2024.
Matty said he would bring new programming to Geneva, as his company represents the Blue Angels pilots, and they would come for a meet-and-greet.
Matty said he would also host best-practice trainings for companies and industries for best practices, and assist nonprofits in how to plan for a year-end appeal.
“Geneva is a perfect location for this,” Matty said. “Staff will be ready to start Aug. 1 booking for events in September.”
The Bread & Vine restaurant franchisee will be husband and wife Scott and Candace Campbell of DeKalb.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/WPI4Y5GIJZHC7IW2HDYGOWOZO4.jpg)
The franchisor is Eric Bonnetain, a classically trained French chef, who will be in charge of the menu, the look and feel of the restaurant, Scott Campbell said in an email.
“The food and operations side of restaurants is new to my wife and I, so we chose to operate as a franchisee of an established brand rather than try to create our own restaurant from scratch,” according to Campbell’s email.
This is the first restaurant for the couple, as his background is in engineering, business and teaching for the last 18 years, and Candace works in health care management.
“I picked Geneva because Third Street is a pretty special place, filled with restaurants – all very nice restaurants in a fairly affluent area,” Campbell said. “It matches the street, it fits the vibe.”
The menu will be almost identical to the one in Galena, featuring French casual food, he said.
They plan to install a more robust kitchen and a full bar in the building, he said.
“We’re very excited to bring this brand to Geneva,” Campbell said.
The restaurant also will offer a pastry counter and French coffees, “to help fill the hole left by the loss of Graham’s 318 coffee shop,” according to Campbell’s email. The plan is to open in late October.
“In time for Halloween,” Campbell said. “That’s our goal.”