Dec. 24 was the last day of operations for Three Twigs & Co., but owners Emily and Tim Lewis said at the time they intended to bring back the business in some form. The next phase is now taking shape, as the couple has signed a lease for The Railyard property at 2242 S. Sixth St. in Springfield.
“This is not goodbye. It’s see you later. We are not walking away. We are running toward something greater,” Emily Lewis wrote in a social media post last November announcing that the business at 2661 Chatham Road would not be renewing its five-year lease.
Three Twigs Bakery has operated out of several locations over the past 10 years, and in 2022 the Lewises combined it with Biscuits + Brunch and The Salted Lemon – Market & Creamery so that all three businesses were under one roof as Three Twigs & Co. But citing staffing issues and increased overhead costs, the couple announced they were taking a “much-needed break” shortly before the birth of their fourth child.
“I was stepping back more and more, being at home with the kids and pregnant with our fourth,” said Lewis. “We made the decision to close without having any knowledge of what the future was; it was really a blind faith situation.”
She said on Christmas Eve, the final day the business was open, she received a call from Kirk Jefferis, owner of The Railyard. Jefferis shared that he was also considering taking a break if he could find the right person to take over his operation.
The Railyard, an outdoor food venue based around shipping containers, closed for the season in September.
"We just talked off the cuff about what that would look like,” Lewis said. “Our family had gone there a few times, and it was awesome. I felt like the potential of the place was huge.”
Discussions continued, and the couple signed a lease last week. “He offered us the deal of a lifetime,” Lewis said.
While The Railyard includes four shipping containers, a brick-and-mortar café and an outdoor space, Lewis said it should be more manageable than Three Twigs Co. was because they will be leasing out the food containers to other businesses and only operating the indoor portion.
“We do consider this smaller-scale, because we’re just taking over one space,” she said. “We’re going from a full-service restaurant and bakery taking custom orders to just focusing on what we’re calling The Pie Bar. We’ll have a large assortment of pies, plus crafted cocktails and local beers.”
Lewis said her husband and mother-in-law will continue to be involved in the day-to-day operations. “I get to stay home with the kids and do the social media, bookkeeping, planning events – all things I can do from home.”
The initial plan is to be open Wednesday through Saturday in the evening.
“We want to have consistent hours across the board, nothing open separately,” Lewis said. “As we gauge foot traffic and how all our tenants are feeling we might expand to lunch hours. But that’s better than going big and then taking it away and confusing people (with reduced hours) if it’s too much.”
And given the outdoor nature of The Railyard, Lewis said the idea is to remain a seasonal business, although she hasn’t ruled out keeping The Pie Bar open for the holidays. “We might try the off-season, especially through Thanksgiving and Christmas, since we will be taking pie orders,” she said.
However, the new business will not be operating under the Three Twigs & Co. name. “We want this to be a new venture, and we don’t want people to associate what we used to be with the new project,” Lewis said. “I think that would just create confusion.”
Instead, The Pie Bar, along with the other yet-to-be-determined businesses, will be collectively known as The Railyard. Lewis said a snow cone business has signed a lease for the former cantina space and that they are in discussions with other area businesses for the remaining three shipping containers.
“We have several people we’re talking to, and I’d really like to get a pizza, barbecue and Mexican place to fill those spots. I think that would be a good mix, and it's the type of food you can eat outside,” she said.
An official opening date has not been set, but Lewis said she is hoping to have The Railyard open “in April, or May 1 at the very latest.”
