Leather works with coffee — and doughnuts? St. Paul neighbors say, 'Yes!'

Since the 1930s, the little wooden store most recently known as Josephs Market at the corner of Oakdale Av. and Sidney St. E. in St. Paul was more than a place to buy groceries, meat and chorizo. It was where neighbors gathered, trading news and catching up with friends.

Now, Kent and Lee Begnaud want to create that same feel ... but with leather and coffee.

The owners of Leather Works Minnesota are planning to transform the decade-vacant market into a new workshop for their company's custom wallets, belts and specialty items — as well as a coffee shop. Using an idea modeled after Foxtrot Studio in Kansas City, the Begnauds envision a neighborhood hangout where customers can sip a fresh brew and munch on a pastry while watching their new bag or belt being made.

While the Begnauds admit they have no firsthand coffee shop chops, two of their daughters and sons-in-law own and operate another coffee shop in Kansas City, called Oddly Correct. If they are successful in completing the Josephs Market transformation, at a cost they estimate at $375,000, they plan to have another daughter run that part of the operation.

Leather Works Minnesota has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise some of the funds. They've created the No. 7 Wallet to help push them over the top.

"I thought, if we could sell a few cups of coffee a day, it would help offset the increase in our monthly expenses," Kent Begnaud said. "And we love the coffee world. And so we're like, 'Oh, that'd be so cool to incorporate the coffee and the leather. ' "

Lee Begnaud said it would be no bougie coffee emporium with fancy lattes and espressos. Just locally sourced coffee and pastries, maybe a little fancier than doughnuts.

"We want to keep it local because we know that neighborhood will appreciate that," she said. "And also, for a bakery, you know?"

The fact that a successful leather goods company wants to move to the West Side after 20 years in Lowertown is pretty cool, said Monica Bravo, executive director of the West Side Community Organization. That they want to put a coffee shop inside it is even better, she said.

"I think a coffee shop would be amazing there, honestly. A place where people gather," Bravo said, pointing out that the market is the only commercial building in the area. "A few years ago, some people were talking about a doughnut shop there, and people were excited. When it was a butcher shop, it was also a place to gather."

She added: "People need that."

Count Rebecca Noecker, who represents the area on the St. Paul City Council, as a coffee shop and leather works fan.

"I think it's a really exciting idea," she said, adding she's encouraged that the Begnauds have been in touch with the building's previous owners and many of its neighbors. "They're open to community feedback."

Noecker said a proposal to move small-scale manufacturing into a residential area is also what she hopes becomes a trend.

"I think that's the kind of neighborhood-level economic development that we need," Noecker said, adding that the proposal echoes the corner stores that once sprung up along St. Paul's streetcar lines in the 1920s and 1930s. "That was our more traditional mixed-use concept."

On a recent morning, in front of her house a block away from the old market, Michelle Valtierra was holding a yard sale. She's recently returned to the neighborhood where she grew up, she said. She remembers going into Josephs Market and buying "a huge bag of candy" for $1.

"I love the coffee shop idea," she said. "Because I really don't know any of my neighbors. I moved back and they're thinking: 'Who's that?' Right?"

Kent Begnaud, who started the company out of a garage near St. Paul in 1999, just turned 70. He has no plans to retire, he said. And he doesn't want to get bigger than the handful of employees currently on the job. Adding coffee and doughnuts, he hopes, will help keep this small business in his family for years to come.

"We wanted to pattern it after the European businesses, where it's a family business that's around for generations," he said. "So we can keep it small. And we'll keep the quality good."