New Owner in at Wired Coffee; 'I'm Not a Coffee Drinker'

A popular Sunset Hills coffee shop has changed ownership, and the new owner has a few other changes in store. The irony: The new owner isn't even a coffee drinker.

Susan Hamer, a University City resident who moved recently to the St. Louis area, has bought from Jan Jobes. Jobes founded the coffee shop five and a half years ago.

The pair closed on the deal on Nov. 30; on Monday, Job was side-by-side with Hamer, training the new owner on some of the finer points of running his former business on Lindbergh Boulevard, south of Watson.

Hamer said visitors can start expecting to see locally roasted coffee from Hartford Coffee Company in St. Louis, ground in the shop, rather than beans roasted and shipped from Seattle. 

She's also expecting to add reading events for moms and kids and has already added a bookshelf full of games.

Jobes, of Ballwin, said he was happy the shop was going to be in good hands.

"We largely accomplished what we set out to do," said Jobes, of Ballwin, who got out of corporate life to start the shop. "We wanted to do something that was community-based and to be a little different from Starbucks and places like that."

Jobes said he was motivated to move on because of another venture he's got on the sidelines. He wasn't ready to talk about it, but said it was time to go all-in on the new venture — or it wouldn't get off the ground.

Hamer's story is a little similar to Jobes's. She was in corporate finance for Kohl's department stores, based in Wisconsin, and moved to the St. Louis area for her husband's job with Barry-Wehmiller in Clayton.

"This is drastically different. I don't like sitting behind a desk and didn't want to do that anymore," Hamer said. "But it's find of funny: I'm not a coffee drinker."