Local Honey Beauty Hive expands to include cafe and incubator

BUFFALO, NY — For our buffest story of the day, we take you to Niagara Street in Buffalo, where a local business owner is expanding her beauty salon to include a cafe and incubator space.

Jennifer Bohlen came up with the name for her beauty salon about 15 years ago.

“I was driving, I grew up in Elma, I went to Iroquois, and there was a farm there that always had local honey signs, and I loved it, so I said I wanted name something that one day,” said Jennifer Bohlen, owner of Local Honey Beauty Hive and Gold Lion.

Local Honey Beauty Hive was born four years ago and moved into a space on Niagara Street once businesses were able to open during the pandemic.

“After a few years of really good results, I thought maybe I want to sell more retail products, maybe have other beauty professionals who want to rent space from me, so I built that side ” said Jennifer Bohlen.

And thus Gold Lion was born. The cafe officially opens on June 18.

“Our customers always drink coffee. They always bring Starbucks and Tim Hortons and buy Door Dash and I was like, well we should just sell it here,” Jennifer Bohlen said.

And Bohlen doesn’t stop there. It is also transforming this former spinning factory into a business incubator space for entrepreneurs.

“I’m building eight new rooms there,” Jennifer Bohlen said. “We would love to have other people who do nails or waxing, things like that, but also other types of businesses too. Ashton owns a clothing company, she makes clothes, so she’s going to have a little store there, and I’d like to have different types of businesses that can work together, and also supply the cafe.”

She says it’s great because you would be in a space with clients who are already at the salon.

“We probably have about three thousand customers that come to the salon, you know, at least 60 to 75 people a week that come to the salon, so you have all these people that might visit the back space, you know, because I’m going to make it really cute there with plants and like, almost like a kind of mall there, so I would encourage our customers to go back and take a look,” Jennifer Bohlen said.

And Bohlen is excited to be part of a growing business community in Buffalo.

“I feel like I’m in this building, there’s something magical about this building. I don’t know, it’s very, it’s just, this whole neighborhood, this street is being transformed. go up, it’s really pretty here, there are plants, it almost feels like I’m outside, I mean it’s great now that we’re in the time of year where we We can also sit outside, but in the winter I feel like people come in here and almost feel like they’re outside “It’s like the botanical gardens or outside because it’s. is very bright, open and green,” Jennifer Bohlen said.

She gives this advice to people who want to start their own business.

“If you have a good foundation that will allow you to get customers, you shouldn’t be afraid to do it,” Bohlen said.