Jilene Foust is at it again

November 13, 2024 | PK Magazine | Uncategorized

Story by Steve Nussbaum | Photos by Kim Nussbaum

Jilene Foust and her daughter, Dayne Baird, are adding a new twist to their popular restaurants Hemmingway’s and Pie House.

Foust, who has never been the type to rest on her laurels, is bringing her love of home décor and design to her already very popular eateries.

Her newest endeavor is named The Porch by Jilene, and the two women have combined talents to bring a high-style, high-end home décor and lifestyle gift shop to Hemmingway’s. To do that, they’ve enclosed the front porch of the restaurant and added a unique shopping experience.

“We love the restaurants, but design is really my passion,” Foust said, adding that she always seeks out projects and creative outlets.

Baird also is creative in her own right, and she’s involved with the advertising and social media for the restaurants, so it was only natural that this mother-daughter duo tackled this retail project as a team.

Both women said the shopping space will be unlike anything residents and visitors to PK have seen before.

Foust and her husband, Todd, opened Hemmingway’s in June 2021. After a holiday weekend at the restaurant and where customers experienced some slow wait times, Foust realized it was the to-go pizza orders that were bogging down the restaurant’s food-service times.

Jilene Foust and daughter Dayne Baird

That realization became the inspiration for The Pie House, a totally self-contained pizza restaurant adjacent to Hemmingway’s that has become a local favorite while also solving the backlog of kitchen orders.

Along the way, the couple also purchased and remodeled “The Cottages” on Highway 16 as a much-needed rental property for local folks working at PK.

Foust said she plans to use the same approach she used in opening Hemmingway’s to make The Porch successful: see what works, then move quickly while constantly expanding and improving. That formula has served her well so far.

Foust and her daughter hope The Porch will provide a unique shopping experience to those attending events at the lake and dining at their restaurants.

Foust and her daughter have always wanted to own their own retail business, and the two women have taken what they’ve seen in other stores and brought their own flair to the project.

The store has been turned into a modern, stylish space, with architectural features such as the cased moldings, modern furniture and sleek fixturing. The Porch had a “soft opening” on Oct. 19, and plans include focusing on gift giving and home décor during the holiday season. After that will come a pivot to cater to the seasonal lake crowd.

Foust and her daughter hope The Porch will provide a unique shopping experience to those attending events at the lake and dining at their restaurants.

Some of the items offered for sale at The Porch include a collection of NEST New York, Voluspa and other popular candle lines. A collection of diffusers and oils for home use, as well as LE Fine Jewelry, will also be part of the store’s inventory. The two women have added Katie Kime sleepwear for the holidays, too, and there also will be items not just for children, but for dogs from Foggy Dog.

The Porch also has added a line of collection knives from Anza Knives, Colorado Knife and Silver Stag Knives that are a small sampling of the brands and items to be found on the shelves. The aim is for the store to pack a punch in a small, unique space.

The Porch should help fill a business niche that currently doesn’t exist in the area, and Foust and Baird will use their creative minds to help make it a huge success. As Todd Foust commented: “I can’t think of a better scenario than of a store and a bar.”