T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Daughter Devon Sleeth, on left, and mother Libbi Gramby prepare coffee and tea for customers at their family business Table 304.

WHEELING — As Mother’s Day is a time to spend with family, nobody knows that better than Table 304 owner Libbi Gramby, who opened the coffee shop with her daughter, Devon Sleeth, in 2021.

Gramby originally started her business in 2019, but it was not yet a coffee shop.

“I had started in 2019 doing charcuterie boards from my house and it got to be too much to do from my house. And I knew that this kitchen was empty, so I contacted the building owner and rented out just the kitchen for that first year,” Gramby said. “But then when Covid hit, Devin [Sleeth] had been working at Starbucks as a barista, and during Covid, they let a bunch of people go. So I said, ‘I have holiday boards, come help me for the holidays and I’ll pay you while you’re figuring out what you’re going to do.'”

She added that Sleeth was already a strong barista, and while making holiday charcuterie boards, the duo began daydreaming about starting a business in the building’s unused lobby.

“I just started brainstorming menu ideas and figuring out how to start a coffee shop. It just felt like it needed to be a coffee shop, it just fit,” Sleeth said.

Both Gramby and Sleeth agreed they love working together.

“I love it, we have a very good time. We have very close relationships, so that makes it easier. But I think we also do well, kind of navigating when we need to put our business hats on for a minute and talk about this, or when it’s time to talk about the mom kind of stuff that happens,” Gramby said. “We have a good relationship, so I think that makes it fun.”

Sleeth added that she enjoys working with her mother.

“It’s fun for me too, and I love that I get to be able to be creative and kind of experiment and do whatever I can in the coffee shop side,” Sleeth said. “It gives me a lot of opportunities to be creative with coffee.”

Gramby is technically the owner of Table 304, while Sleeth is the manager, but Gramby said the coffee shop is Sleeth’s “baby” and she has free rein to run it.

Gramby said she is the owner on paper because she owned the business prior to the pair teaming up.

Sleeth said that since joining forces, the shop has seen steady growth, with 2025 being the most successful year to date.

“I feel like this year we’ve really seen a jump on the coffee shop side, for sure. I feel like every day we’re busy now. We’ve seen a gradual improvement, but definitely year five is where we’ve seen a lot of the growth for us,” Sleeth said.

She added that the growth has required hiring additional staff.

Table 304 currently has four baristas, one kitchen staff member and one events coordinator who handles rentals of the upstairs event space.

While reminiscing about the past five years, Sleeth recalled an especially stressful week they now laugh about.

One day before the coffee shop’s grand opening, Sleeth broke both of her feet.

“I broke both my feet, and we were opening the coffee shop at the same time. So when we had the ribbon cutting ceremony, I took my boots off and waddled out to get the picture taken. And it was just like a crazy day,” she said. “And then the next day I ended up with Covid. So I feel like that’s just kind of how our business has been. We’re always going through all of these hurdles and stuff, but it’s funny and memorable.”

Gramby recalled another milestone: winning the 2020 “Show of Hands” competition sponsored by Wheeling Heritage.

She said the win was important because it helped them secure a commercial food processor needed for the catering side of the business.

“We did a campaign on our Facebook page, hashtag, save the cheese spread, because we made like 600 pounds of cheese spread that year and I desperately needed a commercial cheese grater,” Gramby said.

Sleeth added that the social media campaign helped bring patrons to the event to vote for Table 304.

Gramby said 2025 was the first year since opening that they have not dealt with either the pandemic or the city’s streetscape construction project.

“It’s been a lot opening during Covid and then during the streetscape project, because before they even started on the sidewalks they redid all of the water and sewer lines. So we were only in the first year here with no construction. It was a challenge the whole time getting started. So I feel like that is partly why we’re just now feeling like, okay, this is what it feels like to be in business here without being surrounded by construction,” Gramby said. “We also have to navigate family stuff at the same time as business stuff and you just have to laugh at the way it happens sometimes. But we do have a lot of fun and we’re always being silly.”