The business, 234 Broad St., started in Cave Spring in 1998 as a sandwich shop and bakery associated with Doc and Ginny Kibler’s Cave Spring Trading Company antique store.
“Some folks from Rome approached us and so we rented a small space on Second Avenue and opened the Harvest Moon, with six tiny tables, outdoor picnic tables,” Ginny Kibler said. “It was well received so I decided to expand to a full service restaurant and knew I wanted to be downtown.”
The shop moved to its present location in the old Fahy Building in 2001.
She admits that she never imagined the kind of success Harvest Moon would have over the years.
“If I had known then what I know now, I must admit, I might not have signed on,” she said. “The restaurant business has taught me so much, an education I don’t think you can get anywhere else.”
She minces no words when giving credit for the restaurant’s success to her team of employees.
“We always worked hard at starting up new businesses and news ideas. When it gets successful, that’s time to move on to the next idea,” Doc Kibler said.
Ginny Kibler said she and her husband first talked with a broker about a year and a half ago.
“I just could not make myself sign on the
dotted line,” she said. “I was concerned for the people who have worked for me for a long time and wanted to make sure that their future here was safe.”
The Shumacher Group of Atlanta is listing the sale.
She said some of the employees expressed a degree of sadness at her decision to sell.
“I am trying to speak to all of them to explain that it is not a fire sale,” she said. “I care about this place, and hopefully a future investor will want me to stick around as an employee.”
Ginny Kibler said she does not have a timetable for striking a deal with a buyer, adding that she is most concerned about having, “the right investor or investors for the Harvest Moon.”
“We had a reserve list of investors and we’re trying to give them all 30 days before it went out to the general public,” Doc Kibler said. “We’re very hopeful that it will be one of the people on the reserve list and a local person that will take it on.”
As for her future, Ginny Kibler said she has ideas.
“In the immediate future I would like to be a better wife, sister, daughter and friend to those who I haven’t spent time with,” she said.
The Kiblers are partners in ownership of the building with Nancy and Jack Knight of Rome. A potential sale of the building would most likely be handled separately.
“If that doesn’t happen, we are willing to lease,” Ginny Kibler said.
The owners have worked very hard, while many of us have leisurely sat back and watched them do it. If they have decided that they would like to sell and slow down, then good for them. They deserve to now enjoy different aspects of their life if they want. and who are we to criticize or question them? Most of us have not created even one job, or even attempted to start a business from scratch. Starting and running a successful business is very difficult. And if they want to change course, I say to them....Thank you for the sacrifice you have made for our community. And please feel free to enjoy your lives as you wish. You do not owe us anything.
I agree with your Republican premise 100%. Same attitude should apply to Federal and State governments, also. Same attitude should apply to Obama, Bush, Deal, Perdue, or anyone, past or present, on both sides of the political aisle.