Juanita Darden-Jones, opened Third Perk Coffeehouse on Fifth Street in 2015, while also serving as a mathematics professor at Sinclair Community College. The cafe quickly became a Dayton favorite for meetings, grabbing premium coffee and a delicious chicken salad sandwich. It was there she launched her SHE-Ro speaking events, that highlights female community leaders who is open to mentoring other women, and she has a story to tell.

West Branch Community Room.

She sits on the board of YLAG –Young Ladies Aspiring Greatness, mentoring our community’s youth. Juanita encourages people who would like to help support this group to make a donation and put the term Perk Up in the comments.

But when Premier Health moved out across the street, the entrepreneur saw a major drop in her business and the food traffic in the neighborhood dwindled. Then the proposed student housing in the old Dayton Daily News building fell through Darden- Jones moved her downtown location to 146 E. Third Street in 2020.

She also launched Third Perk locations at the Dayton Mall, Fairfield Common and most recently at Gem City Market. Sadly traffic counts weren’t high enough to sustain those businesses and they are now all closed. But Darden-Jones says that has given her time to re-focus and put effort into growing her downtown location. They’ve reved up the food menu serving quiche, salads and sandwiches. She has plans to expand the offerings and teases that her she’ll soon have the “sweetest corner” downtown.

She shares her journey in her podcast “The Broken Entrepreneur” as she goes through a massive shift to stay afloat. You can follow what she calls her 18 Month Journey To profitability, scaling and sustainability For Years To Come.