It was the spring of 2014 when Gus Janeway, a winemaker at RoxyAnn Winery, decided to switch gears and open a new kind of bicycle shop, Piccadilly Cycles (525 A Street) in Ashland with his good friend Blaine Pickett.

It’s been a long and rewarding forty years for Gold & Gems Fine Jewelry, located downtown on the Plaza at 25 N. Main. It all started in 1982 when Richard Hansen, who had moved his family to Ashland in 1972, assisted a friend in his jewelry business. His career began as a manufacturer’s wholesale rep, traveling through the country selling to retail jewelers.

It’s not easy taking over an iconic Ashland restaurant that had been serving downtown Ashland for over 35 years, but that didn’t deter Brent Brakebill, Frank Ortega and Mari Mendoza when they bought Greenleaf Restaurant (49 N. Main on the Plaza) from Daniel Greenblatt in February 2020.