Hideaway Candle Bar a chic addition to Waynesburg’s downtown
A sweet-smelling space decorated in dark blues and shades of gold is tucked away on the ground level of what was once the Waynesburg Hotel and Lounge.
Hideaway Candle Bar opened June 9 along South Morgan Street, and offers locals and out-of-towners alike a dreamy space in which to break bread (accompanied, perhaps, by meats and cheeses, charcuterie style), lounge and create custom candle scents.
“I’m from Waynesburg. I love this town,” said Sarah Eddy, the Central Greene High School math teacher who owns Hideaway Candle Bar. “This place needs things to do.”
Eddy is a doer with a knack for crafts and entrepreneurship. For years, Eddy has handcrafted candles, which she gifts the hard-to-shop-for people in her life. Years ago, she started casually selling her wares to friends and acquaintances.
Last year, around the holidays, Eddy dusted off her candle-making materials and got to hand-pouring.
While picking up her son Finn Cyprowski from school, one of Eddy’s candles caught a fellow mom’s eye.
“She was like, ‘Oh, can you make me some?'” Eddy recalled. “I’m like yeah, sure. One thing led to another and I had so many people that wanted (candles). I ended up making like 500 of them at Christmastime. And then I did another round for Valentine’s Day. I did another round for Mother’s Day.”
The sales were a hit, and Eddy smelled a future in candles.
“The idea of a candle bar came to me,” she said, noting similar businesses exist elsewhere, but there’s nothing like Hideaway in Greene County.
Eddy dreamed up the business name and logo before she began location scouting. She and her husband, Nick Eddy, visited a handful of available storefronts, but they didn’t quite fit the schoolteacher’s vision.
“My husband was like, whatever you want to do, I’ll support you. I’m like, I don’t want to do it in just a random place. I wanted to find, like, a cool place.”
In January, Eddy toured a property owned by judge and family friend Farley Toothman. Toothman had revamped much of the ground-level space along South Morgan. Eddy stepped inside, onto black and white checkered floors and fell in love at first sight with the wrap-around bar and street-level windows.
She and her husband spent a few months transforming the space’s beautiful bones into an elegant hangout. Nick leveled the bar, and the couple added a copper surface to the candle-making area (a nod to Hideaway’s original ceiling, now a bright white).
“I bought the two couches before I bought anything else. I love this style of furniture and I love the velvet, but it would never work in my house,” she said. “My mom actually found this wallpaper, and then everything else just kind of followed suit as far as the artwork and the whole look. I guess it ended up not being speakeasy, more like glam.”
Glam, indeed. The Edison light fixtures, marble countertop and wispy floral arrangements offer guests a relaxed, creative atmosphere. Already, Eddy has welcomed return customers, and she loves guiding first-time visitors through the scent-making process.
“A lot of people will come in with like an idea of what they want, and I’ll guide them. But some people are clueless. No matter what I’m doing, I feel like I’m always coming back to teaching in some way,” Eddy smiled. “It is important to me to be a teacher, and sitting here and teaching people how to make a candle that have never made a candle, it’s nice.”
Folks are welcome to bring snacks and beverages, including wine, seltzers and beer. Along with candles, guests can create their own aroma beads, wax melt and room sprays. Creators choose up to three smells from the scent wall, take a seat at the bar and make magic.
Magic includes adding a splash of color to wax and dusting candles with glitter.
Eddy takes reservations and welcomes drop ins, and folks are encouraged to spend time lounging on the velvet Chesterfield couches while they wait for a turn at the mixing bar or for their scents to be transformed into room fresheners.
“The atmosphere that I wanted … was just like a super calming, relaxing kind of just place you could hang out. People need that because we’re always so busy,” Eddy said.
Hideaway is certainly inviting, and the vibe changes depending on who’s creating.
“I had a Girl Scout troop come in with 12 second-graders, so the atmosphere was like very electric and alive,” Eddy said. “I had one group come in for a bachelorette party and they brought food and wine and they hung out. That was more like a relaxed kind of thing.”
When school begins in the fall, Hideaway’s hours will change to best serve the community, including Waynesburg University students looking for weekend entertainment, and surrounding areas.
What won’t change is the excellent customer service, the fun of crafting your own candle, or the joy of relaxing with friends in a lux space.
“It brings people together. So many customers have said it’s so nice to have something different to do. I think that’s just what people are looking for: They want some kind of entertainment, but at the same time, it’s their personal creation,” Eddy said. “I always tell people like, make yourself at home, take as much time as you need. And I’ve had people already come back multiple times, so that’s good. That’s always the best possible compliment, return customers.”