For Kelsey Harms and Justen Hughes, opportunity came knocking just as another door was closing. Kelsey, lead pastry chef, and Justen, former bar manager, were vacationing together when they learned that the restaurant on Petersburg Square where the couple met — and where Kelsey still worked — was closing.
“We were in Arizona when I got the call from the owner,” she says, mentioning that it was scary to hear her job wouldn’t be there when she returned. As luck would have it, however, shortly after receiving the news, someone else reached out to her.
That person was Liz Carter, an owner of First and Third Boutique and Wine Bar, also located on the square, who shared with Kelsey that their building would soon be for sale. “I bartended for her a little bit, and she allowed me to do some bakery pop-ups, because I’d started a cottage kitchen,” says Kelsey. “She knew I wanted my own place one day. Before she put it on the market, she reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, are you interested?’”
A month later, her parents Jim and Ellie Harms, longtime Menard Electric Cooperative members, purchased the building, and it was all hands on deck creating its new identity as Cafe Amulet. The name pays homage to the Talisman at Broadgauge, the bakery where Kelsey previously worked. “An amulet is a type of talisman. … I gained a lot of experience there, and I’m grateful for that,” she says.
Jim, who did interior remodeling prior to retirement, lent his expertise to the new venture. “I’ve been retired for about four years. Now I say I work for free for our kids,” he laughs. “Our kids always have a project going on. [I get paid] in coffee and cookies now.”
“We all worked hard to get it up and going,” says Ellie. What family and friends were unable to do, the Harms hired local professionals for. The project involved converting the basement into a kitchen and running plumbing and electricity into parts of the building, as well as moving commercial refrigerator/freezers and 600-pound ovens down the stairs into that new basement kitchen.
Even the health inspector was helpful during the building’s overhaul, guiding the young business owners through the process. The work included putting in a drop ceiling and painting the kitchen so everything was washable, as well as putting in a three-bowl sink and a separate handwashing sink.
The family was also surprised at the amount of help offered by members of the community prior to opening. Jim’s former business partner helped with painting and fabricating countertops; men from a neighboring business helped move equipment; Hand of Fate Brewing Company offered a helping hand on more than one occasion; the antique shop owner next door gave them a key to get easier access to their roof; Kelsey’s friend created the logo based on her cat Henry (who sadly passed in January 2025); and Ellie’s florist friend designed flowerboxes out front — just to name a few examples.
“Everyone just jumped in and helped without being asked,” Ellie adds. “I think we’d still be working on it [without them]. … It’s just been a magnet for good things here.”
Kelsey and Justen eventually plan to buy the building from her parents. “They’ve got that on their radar,” says Ellie. “We didn’t buy the building as a money-making venture,” adds Jim. “She pays us rent, but we don’t charge her a ton. We want to let her get going.”
The structure, like others on the square, was surveyed by Abraham Lincoln. “We found out another Harms owned [it] years ago,” Jim says. “We haven’t been able to find [out] whether we’re related.” The building has served several different purposes over the years — a furniture store, a senior citizen center, a restaurant and a Gamble’s Hardware Store.
These days, Cafe Amulet just celebrated its first anniversary, Kelsey and Justen are now married, and the business has transitioned from receiving help from the community to supporting other locally owned businesses — Rolling Lawns Farm milk, Janie’s Mill flour, Jefferies Orchard produce, Farms of Illinois collective products, Arrowroot coffee, Ben’s Spring Creek honey, Good Seeds Flower Farm, Sand Prairie Blooms … the list goes on.
In addition, the cafe — a combination of coffee shop, bakery and wine bar — offers event space for fundraisers, paint nights, live music, yoga classes, CPR classes and parties of all kinds. The building is also home to the self-serve Wildflower & Rose Bookstore, and provides a place local artists can display their work for sale.
“I had these ideas in my head, because we have so much space,” says Kelsey. “[I want] to do a little market here, too, which we might work up to at some point. Just having seasonal goods to sell that are from local farmers.”
At the heart of things, however, remain good food and drink.
Kelsey’s passion for pastry originated while attending Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. “I started working at a bakery there,” she says. “They taught me most of what I have learned about croissant dough and production baking in general. … I learned a lot from them, and they also sent me to the San Francisco Baking Institute.”
It was while at the Edwardsville bakery that she discovered her love of baking. “I just thought, ‘Oh, this is it. This is what I want to do,’” Kelsey says. “I’m not a morning person, and I had to be there at 4 a.m. … I didn’t complain, and my parents were like, ‘What?’” That feeling hasn’t waned. “There are days … but I get here and I get to doing things, and I’m like, this is still it.”
The cafe employs two kitchen helpers and four baristas. “They’re incredible. We are so lucky to have the team that we do. Everyone is supportive of each other. [If] someone can’t be here, someone’s picking up that shift,” says Kelsey. “It’s wonderful to be able to rely on them. … They care a lot about the product we’re putting out and the people who come in.”
Kelsey and Justen say the community has been receptive. “I think we’ve become like what we call your ‘third spot.’ It’s not work, and it’s not home, but it’s some other place you can go and just be,” Kelsey explains. “That’s one of the things I enjoy most about our space … you come in, buy a cookie or a small thing … [and] hang out as long as you want. We have people that do their work from home stuff here all day.”
That said, the pastries and drinks alone are worth the visit. “Cinnamon rolls are our biggest seller, along with toffee chocolate chip cookies,” she says. “We make the toffee in little batches, because store-bought toffee usually has nuts in it, and I want it to be allergen-friendly.” They also sell a lot of lattes.
Savory menu items include quiche and certain Danishes. “Right now, we’re doing a roasted tomato and herbed goat cheese with a balsamic drizzle,” she adds. “I do a ham and cheddar croissant. We get the cheese from our local dairy farm. It’s really yummy.”
In the fall and winter, the cafe has soups, and currently chicken salad croissants and chicken Caesar wraps are available for lunch. As far as specials go, it depends on what’s in season locally.
It’s similar with the drinks Justen creates. “Whatever flavors she brings in, I try to complement. We have fresh peaches now, so I’ve made a peach and rosemary syrup,” he says. “I think syrups are like enhancers, so I will put them in any drink that somebody wants.” A recent example was a blueberry sage syrup that patrons particularly enjoyed in a margarita.
Justen has also created signature lattes reminiscent of the name Amulet, including the Moonstone (vanilla, hazelnut honey syrup and whole milk), the Amethyst (botanical syrup, honey syrup and oat milk), and the Tiger’s Eye (caramel, chocolate spiced syrup and almond milk). He has done the same with five signature cocktails.
“I get inspired by alchemy, so the five cocktails are the path to the Philosopher’s Stone,” he explains. “The drinks are based on the colors that they’re representing, and they kind of are [those colors] actually.”
They include the Nigredo (black), a carajillo; the Albedo (white), a mojito; the Citrinitas (yellow), a margarita; the Rubedo (red), an old-fashioned; and the Opus, a famous Prohibition-era cocktail called the Last Word.
It was important to the couple that the patrons of the former wine bar still had a place to go. “We wanted to make sure that place still existed for people,” says Justen.
While the historical meaning of the word alchemy inspires the drink menu, its figurative meaning applies to the evolution of the new business as well — a process that changes ordinary things into something special.
“We just made the place we wanted to go to,” says Justen.
Cafe Amulet
