On Monday, a ribbon cutting for 3 Lakes Cafe took place at 11 S. Main St., Cassadaga, at the former JoJo Asian Cafe. It was standing room only as local dignitaries, family and friends gathered for its first day in operation.

The new coffee shop is owned and run by Jacob and Abigail Landean. It’s named after the three lakes that make up Cassadaga Lakes.

Abigail grew up in Sinclairville and attended Panama Central School. Her husband is from the Rochester area and the two of them met at Roberts Wesleyan University.

During the ribbon cutting, Cassadaga Trustee Cindy Flaherty commented on how when Abigail was a teenager and a lifeguard at the Cassadaga beach, she wanted to open her own coffee shop. “I thought that’s a strange goal for a young girl, but here she is killing it,” Cindy said.

Nathan Bailey, left, is pictured with his daughter Abigail and son-in-law Jacob Landean, the new owners of 3 Lakes Cafe. Nathan is currently receiving treatment at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and the new owners have donated all the profits from their opening day to the cancer center.

Abigail said her love for coffee comes from her father Nathan Bailey. “As a kid, I always wanted to try his coffee and he always would let me, even though I was a child. I would drink it black and so I got used to drinking black coffee very early. Any time we were on vacation, Dad and I would go on a ‘mini-date’ and go find a coffee shop and go get coffee together,” she said.

Her mom Debbra Bailey, an art teacher at Panama, was never into coffee, so those father-daughter dates worked well.

Her husband Jacob was not necessarily a coffee lover, but always wanted to own his own business. After college, he was a manager of a Jersey Mike’s Sub Shop in the Rochester area, which confirmed his desire to be a small business owner.

With his wife’s desire to open a coffee shop, Jacob thought it would be perfect for the two of them to run one near Abigail’s hometown.

They were able to purchase the Cassadaga building, developed a business plan and created a menu. Along with various hot and cold coffees, they offer tea, boba tea, smoothies, omelets, salads, wraps, sandwiches and more.

A full menu can be found on their Facebook page.

REDEEMING A TRAGIC DAY

On April 13, 2022 Abigail’s father discovered he had metastasized melanoma. He had five brain tumors. There was also a lesion on his lung, which eventually was discovered to be another five tumors there.

Nathan immediately went to Roswell treatment, which has been successful so far, but not finished. “Roswell came up with a really great plan, which essentially saved his life, so I’m very grateful for them,” Abigail said.

A year later, Nathan, who is the ministry director at Park Methodist Church in Sinclairville, asked his immediate family to consider doing something for others on April 13. “He wanted us to redeem the day. By that he meant he was shown radical love throughout this whole process. People came and chopped wood for him. People came and brought meals. They drove him places. The community showed up. He wanted us as a family to choose to show radical love to somebody else, for no reason other than the fact that God shows us radical love,” Abigail said.

That year Abigail and her husband bought lunch for a group of friends.

A year later, Nathan challenged everyone who follows his “Nate Bailey’s Progress Page” Facebook videos, to follow suit and do something radical for others on April 13.

3 Lakes Cafe had yet to open, but Abigail and Jacob announced on April 13 that they would donate all their profits from their opening day to Roswell.

Nathan isn’t the only family member blessed by Roswell.

Jacob’s mother has also been fighting cancer and had been receiving treatment at Roswell. She actually found out she had stage 4 cervical cancer less than a year ago. She started with a treatment in Rochester and eventually received chemotherapy from Roswell in Buffalo. Following her visits she has been declared cancer free.

Nathan has made tremendous progress as well. He said since the initial diagnosis, only one tumor still needs to be treated and that is in his lung. He looks forward to the day that he, too, can announce he has fully recovered.

Abigail and Jacob said in the future, they will donate all proceeds from April 13 to a charity of some sort. It may be Roswell, it may be a local organization or even a specific person or group of people. But they want to continue the practice every April 13 to “redeem the day.”