Buzzing with community: Owners Jenifer McCart and Andrea Davis on the new family restaurant, Busy Bee Cafe

Wood panels lined with Owen County history, donated decorations and reused booths make up the new family restaurant in Spencer, Indiana along State Road 46.

For Jenifer McCart and Andrea Davis a sense of family is important, and that's what they aim to bring to Owen County in their new restaurant, Busy Bee Cafe.

The two cousin owners, after working together at Crossroads 46 Diner, started their family-owned restaurant, opening it March 27.

The cafe stemmed from McCart's desire to start her own food truck, and when Davis learned of McCart's idea, she decided to join in. As other servers heard of the idea, McCart and Davis decided to think bigger and own a restaurant instead.

At the restaurant they employ friends and family, but their family sentiment spreads to their customers.

"I just purely care about the customers," Davis said. "Another main reason why we did this is because we want to be able to give to the low income side of this community."

McCart added it's important to have affordable meals that are quality and aren't frozen and processed. Busy Bee provides homemade meals along with having local ingredients.

For both McCart and Davis, it's important to give back to their community, using all of their resources they have in their arsenal to help.

Davis said they aren't "trying to be billionaires," but they enjoy seeing their customers come in and then "leave with a smile on their face and a full belly," said McCart.

Recently, the two set up a program to give veterans discounts at the restaurant.

This desire to have a family connection in their restaurant comes from their history in Owen County and their time at Crossroads.

The sense of community and family has spread to the design of Busy Bee as well with donated decorations, furniture, and local history decorating the walls.

There's a mix of family photos and photos from the Owen County Public Library's archives along the walls. Davis hopes to cover the walls with photos and decorations.

To Davis, who was in charge of decorating the cafe, history is important to her. To her, it's important to show where she comes from as well as bringing nostalgia into the cafe.

She also feels that the history on the walls reflects what Busy Bee stands for and what a community can be.

"Community is a team and everybody has to look out for each other," Davis said. "With everything in the economy, in the world, and how hard everything is and everybody's just trying to make it. We have to look out for our own and make sure that we're putting it back into the schools, putting it back into our own places and our own people here."

For Davis and McCart, community is the passion behind the restaurant and what started it. The nicknames they've given their customers and local veterans is a backbone of what the restaurant is.

"We have nicknames for all of our customers and our vets that come in that have no place to go for Thanksgiving, and we truly care about them," Davis said.

This care has extended to McCart inviting some veterans to her own Thanksgiving.

"I grew up poor in certain times of my life and couldn't afford certain things," Davis said. "So, it's like when I know that a lot of this community does struggle, but I want them to be able to come in, talk to your server, have a conversation because sometimes they will come in twice a day and you're only open from 6 [a.m.] to 3 p.m., and they want to come in twice a day just to be able to talk to somebody, and so that's where the girls and the service, I mean, that's the whole point of having the servers to be able to have that relationship with them rather than just going to fast food getting what you need."

The name, Busy Bee, comes from a mix of things. It started from McCart's bee tattoos Davis liked, as well as the saying "busy bees." A saying the two cousins relate to as they've worked in the food industry.

"We were servers nine months ago or however long ago, and running through the aisles and what we are," Davis said. "We're constantly looking like bees running around."

Taking the name, a theme of black and yellow was made with foods incorporating the words honeycomb, hive, and bumblebee.

In the future, Busy Bee hopes to expand their business hours. Currently, the restaurant is open from 6 a.m to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday and Saturday and 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Friday. They plan to stay open later on Thursdays and Saturdays, along with the current Friday time.  

Along with extended hours, they hope to utilize their stage area and have local bands perform as well as potentially having karaoke nights for children. Those are just some of the ideas the two have, but to them, their space provides endless possibilities.

With coffee and the community as their source of motivation, Davis and McCart are focused on growth.