Lori Knight of Ripon is the new owner of the popular Jake’s Coffee, Tea and Sandwich shop in the Ace Hardware Shopping Center on the northeast corner of Main Street and Wilma Avenue.

Jake Parks opened the shop some four years ago, saying he had his struggles like anyone else with a new business, but he was able to turn it into a successful venture with some 100 to 150 customers per day.

Parks has several goals in his future but the most immediate is to help in his dad’s automotive repair shop in Stockton with his superior marketing and promotion talents to help him better succeed.

“It can be very interesting when you are in business for yourself,” he quipped. “It has been good working with my young employees and watching them grow and mature over the past four years.”

He said he has enjoyed interacting with the people in Ripon at his shop and learning how they want their town to develop and prosper with his ear as a city council member. And in the near future he promises to take time for snow skiing once again as well as hiking in the foothills. He appeared grateful that the new owner will keep all 10 members of his existing staff.

“I’m excited for her. She is going to do a fantastic job with the café,” Parks said. “We built the business from the ground up and we were able to bring a shell of a business into a business of the highest quality.”

Park said there are quite a few of his return customers who come from Manteca.

Knight and her family have lived in Ripon since 2000 and their daughter graduated from Ripon High School in 2011. Her entire family is native of the Azores, she said.

“It will definitely be family run,” she noted, “with my husband Paul working in the afternoons after his engineering job in Stockton. And our daughter has a lot of restaurant and food experience.”

Lori expects to make minor changes to the menu at Jake’s.

Asked about her hobbies, she replied, “Every woman loves shoes and shopping, but my family has always been my hobby.”

There will be a name change in early spring, she added. They are looking for suggestions for a new name from the current customers. Their first thoughts are possibly “Cool Beans Café” or “The Pour House.”

Knight added, “If someone can bring us a better name, there will be a prize awaiting them: One $3 coffee every day for six months.”