A new local business just opened doors at the Old State Bank building, next door to Naughty Dog Books, on Main Street.
The store is called Rivers and Roads, which is inspired by the song by The Head and The Heart as well as its use during a love story in the TV show New Girl.
Owners Adam and Gracie Dillon-Moore love the song and the show’s use of it. The name is also an homage to the physical connections that rivers and roads make.
River and Roads opened on April 1 and offers an array locally-sourced, handmade home goods, which Adam said are things that would go into their own home.
Starting next month, the store will also feature a pottery studio, where customers can either throw their own clay or glaze pre-made ceramic pieces.
Adam specializes in making his own beeswax candles in many shapes and sizes, using beeswax from a local apiary.
Gracie is the potter, and all kind of her creations, such as mugs, bowls and candle plates, can be found lining the store.
They also offer other goods made by local artisans, including jewelry and blankets, as well as locally-produced honey, and chocolates and coffee from Equal Exchange, a fair trade company with ethical values.
The Dillon-Moore’s have their own set of values for their store. Adam said they try to be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible, by offering handmade and handcrafted goods only.
They also have no plastic packaging, and limit the distance their goods have to travel before they reach one of Rivers and Roads’ shelves.
“We have local artists from Indianapolis to the Nashville and Belmont area,” Adam said.
“We just focus on trying to leave a good carbon footprint.”
The couple began their business around the beginning of 2022 as small endeavor, limited to community markets and an online store.
They started out with the Nashville farmer’s market, and Adam said they did “extremely” well. Their success led them to think about upping their production and selections.
According to Adam, they were mainly selling beeswax candles at the time.
“So (Gracie) started slowly adding her pottery pieces in to it, and it started doing really well. So we just kind of kept going with it, and we did some big markets in Bloomington — the winter market and the handmade market.”
Adam said those markets went well too, especially the handmade market — it helped their business “blow up,” he said.
“We did a crazy amount of revenue from just that two day event,” he said.
“Which led us to believe, ‘Okay, maybe we should try a storefront.’”
Dream come true
The couple is originally from Knoxville, Tenn. They met as coworkers at a grocery store in Chattanooga, and they quickly became friends.
Before long, they began dating and then got married.
“Her grandfather owned his own produce and natural foods market store a long time ago,” Adam said.
“And my dad has 45 years of grocery retail management, so I guess it’s just in our nature to be in a grocery store.”
Adam followed in his father’s footsteps and entered the grocery retail business for around 20 years, working at natural, organic health-food stores like Whole Foods and Earth Fair.
Adam said Gracie’s family is from the Brown County area. Her father used to own Brown County Leather Shop in Nashville around 30 years ago.
Gracie’s father passed away around two years ago, which led the couple to move to Bloomington to be with her family.
In Bloomington, Adam worked at Lucky’s Market, before it closed in 2020.
The Dillon-Moores have property in Brown County, though, and are building a small cabin on five acres backed up to Yellowwood State Forest.
Adam and Gracie have an 11-year-old daughter named Alice, a 9-year-old son named Julien and a 3-year-old son named Loic.
The family always celebrates the summer and winter solstice, so last winter, they went into the woods and found their own yule log.
“We drilled some holes and made some beeswax candles and put them in there and did a big winter solstice event with family,” he said.
“We really enjoyed making the candles — our kids loved it, we did too. We loved how they burned.”
Adam said they are sensitive to fragrances and chemicals, which can be found in most mass-produced candles.
“What we made was just a pure, beeswax candle. And we loved the bright-burning flame it puts off,” Adam said.
“And it is a clean-burning candle, so it produces no black smoke or soot, and it burned forever.”
He said he thought the candle creation process was very satisfying and interesting.
“But, they weren’t very pretty looking,” he said.
“So I then I wondered if we could make some more and try to make it pretty.”
Adam said he quickly became “obsessed” with trying perfect his beeswax candles.
“It took several months to find the right science, the right temperature, the right pouring methods, all the things,” he said.
“Then, we started having people want to buy them”
When Gracie was in high school, she spent a lot of time in Nashville, with her father in his leather shop. At the time, Gracie’s best friend’s father was John Mills, owner of Mills Pottery.
“Gracie used to watch John throw pottery all day long,” Adam said.
“And she just became fascinated with it when she was in high school, then took a ceramics course at the University of Tennessee.”
Gracie signed up for a six-week pottery class, while Adam was working in the candle formula. He said the class renewed her love for pottery.
“She’s just gone full-steam since then and has become quite the potter,” he said.
Adam said he and Gracie are very thankful for the opportunity to open their store in Nashville.
“It really does mean the world to us both. I just think, for us to get to the point where we’re at right now, with our own store, is a dream we’ve always wanted, since we got married 12 years ago,” he said.
“We always envisioned having a store, and we couldn’t be happier we’re at the location we’re at. Its such a cool, unique building, and we have a great neighbor.”
He said they are also looking forward to the future that store can offer them, especially raising their children to learn the value of the place.
“Just to have a store, so we can show our kids — that we fought really hard for what we believe in, then to have it, and then we’ll take care of it — so when they get older they have the same opportunity, or have the store themselves to carry on if they wish to.”
Rivers and Roads
Location: 76 E. Main St.
Phone: 812-216-3775
Facebook: riversandroadsllc
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/RiversandRoadsLLC
