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Mike Mucha in Handsome Molly’s

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Entrepreneurial spirit takes hold of couple

By MARY BETH JACKSON/Correspondent

With Diana Krall’s husky crooning in the background one evening, Mike Mucha and his wife, Angie, enjoyed coffee and conversation with an Abingdon couple. The easy-flowing conversation could have happened in their living room, but it was at the Muchas’ new shop on Main Street, which they playfully named “Handsome Molly’s.”
This kind of friendly exchange was just what Mucha had in mind since he decided to open a shop in the 1933 building that also houses One Twenty Inc. His ambition was to create a place for Marion residents and tourists to hang out, read and chat.
Handsome Molly’s, named after a bluegrass song, stocks locally roasted fair trade coffee, locally made desserts, and the work of regional artists and musicians. There are paintings, pottery, quilting, woodcrafts, jewelry and more adorning the shelves of the shop, and more to come. The Muchas have applied for a license to sell area wines by the bottle and by the glass.
The Muchas savored the chat with their well-traveled customers, having come a long way before they settled in Marion. Mucha hails from Cleveland, Ohio, while Angie was born in California and raised in Arizona. Both formerly in the U.S. Army, Mucha met Angie in Berlin, where they were dating when the Berlin Wall fell. Upon returning to civilian life, they moved to Arizona, where Mucha became the automation project manager for the Arizona Supreme Court and Angie became an auditor.
Ten years later, they felt deprived of all things green.
“We missed four seasons, we missed trees, we missed grass,” Mucha said.
They moved to Maryland (to be halfway between D.C., where Angie’s sister was living, and Mucha’s family in Cleveland). A blizzard covered their county in four feet of snow one winter, convincing them to move south. They landed in Wythe County, where they had a hobby farm in Cripple Creek.
Then the Muchas were asked by their pastor to be directors of the Lutheran Retreat Center, so they moved their two daughters, Grace, 9, and Ava, 8, and their small herd of goats to Marion.
The Muchas sold their hobby farm, settled the goats at the retreat center and purchased the building downtown in October. At the time, they weren’t thinking of opening a retail store – the space was already occupied by Dorothy’s, which has since moved to the corner of Main and Commerce.
“We wanted to contribute to the revitalization of Marion,” he said. “The entrepreneurial spirit in us really took hold.”
Mucha renovated the shop with his own elbow grease, removing the dropped ceiling and painting the tin ceiling underneath a glossy white. He worked quietly on Main Street, sometimes with the company of Chico, the family’s Jack Russell and Chihuahua mix.
Angie says Marion has been a great mix of town and country for their family. They love being near a clean downtown, the Lincoln Theater, and the natural beauty of Hungry Mother. Her husband agrees.
“I think we’re probably going to stay put for awhile,” Mucha said.