Photography By Karlo Gesner
As Matt Jones renovated a downtown York storefront, he could hear passersby reading signage about the new café on the way.
“Oh, my God!” they’d say all day. “It’s Plant Box Co.!”
Plant Box Co. Café is already firmly rooted in the York County town of Manchester. Now, the verdant nook is bringing its goodies, gifts and greenery to new audiences.
Plant Box Co. originated during the COVID lockdown, when boredom was eating away at the entrepreneurial Brina Williams-Jones and her husband, Matt. She went to a plant auction and came home with 300 succulents. “What are we going to do with those?” Jones asked.
Sell them, William-Jones responded. As her online business selling succulent gift boxes grew, the pair acquired storage space. Then they added a plant boutique. On a drive home from a Florida plant convention, they concocted the idea of central Pennsylvania’s first houseplant café.
Jones, former COO of a lighting retrofit company, got to work building tables, backlit wall hangers and a concrete counter. Walls in Tiffany blue —“If Tiffany had a terrible evening,” WilliamsJones says—were painted a crisp white, all brightly illuminated by track lighting. Plants fill the space, all available for sale and ready to deliver their oxygenating and mental wellness benefits to homes.
Photography By Karlo Gesner
Despite an allergy to coffee, Williams-Jones found the perfect coffee partner with New Holland Coffee Co., whose bright roasts lend themselves well to Instagram-worthy “dessert in a cup” drinks. She devised a menu of baked goods and sandwiches, all named after houseplants, that fit the café’s “brunch for the girlies” vibe.
“We're very feminine focused,” Williams-Jones says. “We really wanted it to be a place where women feel they can come and enjoy a meal and take a break from the world.”
Photography By Karlo Gesner
Weekend brunch, in the café awarded Susquehanna Style’s 2024 “Best Atmosphere” in York and Adams County, is a highlight. Coffee flights pair with baked goods made inhouse, such as the popular Monstera Monte Cristo featuring ham, Swiss cheese, strawberry preserves and strawberry cream cheese on a French toast bagel.
“Every seat is taken,” Williams-Jones says. “Everybody's here and chatting and having a great time, and we love it. We love it when it's busy and loud and wonderful.”
For joyous monthly events, pop-culture cafés take over the shop. In October, a wave of the wand transformed the Manchester space into Harry Potter’s Three Broomsticks Inn. Friends’ Central Perk is coming soon. The year’s blockbuster is Gilmore Girls day, when guests drive for hours to enjoy a Luke’s Diner coffee and chat with Matt Jones, subbing for Luke in flannel shirt and backwards baseball cap.
“He has a great time,” Williams-Jones says. “We all have a great time. It's perfect.”
As Manchester thrived, Williams-Jones scouted downtown York for a new location. She found the 150-year-old Haines Building, with its crown molding “and beautiful historic features that we’re obsessed with.”
The café opened last fall. Like Manchester, the York café sells coffee and girly drinks, easycare houseplants, baked goods and boutique items including jewelry, décor, and accessories crafted by local women artisans. There in a non-bar, bistro setting, watch for mocktails and crepes, filling Downtown York’s gap in go-to dessert spots. Takeover events are fewer, although “we probably have to do a Gilmore Girls downtown because they won't want to be left out,” Williams-Jones said.
Williams-Jones brings her signature whimsy to Plant Box Co.’s wedding florals, the side of the business she calls “my baby.” She and lead floral designer Eryn Boyer create a “garden-party vibe” for weddings from micro to grand. The colors of the bridesmaids’ dresses can sparkle in a bridal bouquet, or a sprig of eucalyptus perks up a boutonniere with texture and fragrance.
Touching on everything floral, from bouquets and flower crowns to aisle and table flowers, Williams-Jones leans into the hospitality aspect of her mission.
“Sometimes people are with us for a year and a half throughout their wedding process, and then they continue to come in for coffee,” she said. “It's just lovely. We get updates from at least half of our couples. It's a really special part of our business.”
Work keeps Williams-Jones and Jones busy, but they schedule a no-shop-talk date night every week. The fur-baby parents of 14-year-old lemon beagle Mia and 3-year-old poodle-pointer Louie travel frequently, often taking the award-winning Louie to Frisbee competitions.
With its second location, Plant Box Co. now employs 18 people, many of them young women in college and reaching for personal goals.
“We want them to be able to walk into this team, feel confident, and know that they're going to be treated well and appropriately,” she said. “Employees will tell you it's a pretty cool place to work.”
The Plant Box Co. mission statement encompasses that ideal, striving to make a positive impact for the community, employees, vendor partners, and the clientele who have become part of the Plant Box Co. family.
“We're very fortunate that people trust us and care about our staff,” Williams-Jones says. “They're invested in Plant Box Co. It's a community in itself, and we always feel very thankful and very grateful that people want to be a part of that circle and be part of a little bit of the crazy. People have bought into Matt and I as a couple and to Plant Box Co. as a business, and that's never something we'll take for granted.”
Plant Box Co. Café | 4191 N. George Street Ext, Manchester 9 W. Philadelphia Street, York | plantboxco.com