Drive down U.S. 278 through Piedmont in Calhoun County, and a sign may catch your eye, as it has many others.

Chief Ladiga Trading Post, it reads. Guns Fudge and Coffee.

“I see a lot of people standing outside there, taking pictures,” said the store’s co-owner, Jennifer South. “It’s kind of funny. All-American. Guns and fudge.”

Customers can enter through two doors.

One opens onto a fully stocked gun shop, with rifles, shotguns and pistols, along with ammunition, assorted gear, clothing and other accessories.

The other is the entrance to a neat little bistro, with a freezer case of ice cream, different flavors of fudge, cookies and macaroons, and a menu board with breakfast and lunch options.

The smell of coffee permeates the air, along with the sound of gentle folk music.

It’s an unusual combination, sort of a small-town Bass Pro Shop, and a reflection of its owners – husband and wife team Greg and Jennifer South.

“We wanted to create something unique and high quality,” Greg said. “Something that a family could come into and feel at home.”

Eight years ago, Jennifer met Greg outside her old downtown Piedmont business, the Solid Rock Cafè.

He was a truck driver from Georgia who had been through town for the first time a few days before, biking his way down the Chief Ladiga Trail. She had been living and working in Piedmont for about 20 years.

He had stopped in for a bite to eat at the Solid Rock a few days earlier and planned to return on Monday. However, the eatery was closed that day, and Greg sat forlorn and hungry outside the restaurant.

“I had just run into the shop to get something, and I saw this guy sitting out on the bench,” she remembered.

“He had his head down, like he was upset that we were closed. I opened the door and asked, ‘Can I get you anything?’”

Jennifer invited him inside for a chicken salad on croissant.

Not long after, Greg retired from trucking, relocated to Piedmont, and the two married. “It was meant to be,” she said.

Jennifer eventually closed and sold the Solid Rock Cafè, which had grown beyond her original vision.

Greg opened a gun shop downtown, but they decided it needed a location closer to traffic. They soon found a place off the highway.

“I don’t know anything about guns,” she said. “We were trying to think about what would go well with the guns, and I’ve always loved coffee. And I missed not doing that.”

The Chief Ladiga Trading Post opened in January 2019. Its cafè started out small, but customers began clamoring for more items. The place began attracting the curious, as well as recreationists heading down the trail.

Then COVID-19 happened.

Gun sales spiked during the Pandemic, with background checks nationally topping more than 1 million a week for a stretch during the early lockdown, according to the FBI.

But gun owners get hungry too, and though restaurants saw orders dip during that time, the Trading Post experienced a run on its treats, Jennifer said.

“We were so busy, where a lot of people lost business,” she said. “People wanted to do something that made them feel good. We sold more fudge and coffee and ice cream during the Lockdown than we ever had.”

Jeff, who is also a Piedmont City Councilman, said the two stores, while joined in one building, compliment each other.

The gun shop, with a fake fireplace and mounted deer heads, has a cosy feel, unlike the aura of other places that sell automatic weapons. And conversations that begin in one part of the store may migrate to the other.

“A lot of the wives like to come in and get their coffee while their husbands go over to the gun shop and look,” Jennifer said. “It’s not always that way, but it’s a nice, healthy balance.”