-By Kate Bartlett-
Ava Grace Fashions, The Loft at Ava Grace & Ava Grace Laundry Services
Ava Grace Fashions is celebrating its 7-year anniversary this month with a brandnew laundry service to the area. Jessica Gilbert started Ava Grace out of her desire for a shop with cute, comfortable and affordable clothing with regular and plus sizes in the village. “Accessibility in style, size and price has always been important to me, while providing a fun and friendly environment for locals and visitors alike to enjoy.”
Ava Grace started as an online boutique from the attic of Jessica’s garage. She quickly moved to 10 Washington St, taking over another boutique shop’s space from an owner who was battling some health issues. After a few years at this location, Ava Grace Fashions moved to 24 Washington when another store owner retired. In 2020, the building sold and Jessica was given a year to find a new home. She is now located in a beautiful boutique location at 23 Jefferson St. directly across from the Catholic Church. Jessica chose the name as it the name she had in mind for her baby. “I had a boy and named him Samuel, and I’m not having a daughter so I named my store ‘Ava Grace’ since I loved the name.
In February of this year, after completing permits, licensing and remodeling, The Loft at Ava Grace opened on the second floor of the new building. This is a short-term rental space Jessica manages using Airbnb at https://www.airbnb.com/h/loft-at-ava-grace.
“After hearing for years that the village of Ellicottville was missing access to a laundry facility, I decided to take action. I was using our in-house laundry while cleaning The Loft and running the when store I got an idea…I can just do people’s laundry here too. I brainstormed and asked the important people in my life and created ellicottvillelaundry.com The vision is to fulfill a need: to help busy moms have a few things knocked off their to-do list, for locals to have a place to get an unavailable service done and help anyone that needs it. I would love to see the service become so popular that I get to hire other independent launderers to meet the demand.”
The Ellicottville Laundry Service is now open, and offers convenient options. Customers can drop off a 13-gallon garbage bag of dirty clothes to Ava Grace Fashions at 23 Jefferson Street anytime while the store is open or after store hours on the camera monitored porch. Wash, dry, and re-bag is $13, or wash, dry and fold for $15. Customers leave their contact info and are contacted in 24 to 48 hours when the clean clothes are ready for pick-up. Pick-up and delivery are available for an additional fee. Steaming service is also another add on. “As this is a new service, we are fluid and learning best practices as we go. We welcome customer feedback and value your opinions!”
“Our goal is to get a self-service washer and dryer set (or two) and to build a comfortable lounge laundry room. Customers would be able to do laundry at an even better price. It will just take a little time to get the details and remodel done, but we hope to bring this to Ellicottville in the near future.”
For more information visit https://avagracefashions.com/pages/ellicottville-laundry-service or stop by 23 Jefferson Street, email jessavagrace@gmail.com. “Contact me to get started, arrange a drop off time and take that off your to do list! I’m so excited to start this third portion of how Ava Grace serves the village of Ellicottville.”