Located at 4701 Forest Hill Ave., Janet’s Café and Bakery is a convenient stop on a Southside commute, and is just five blocks south of the Buttermilk Trail, which is perfect if your goal is to enjoy an apple hand pie by the river while being side-eyed by jealous geese.

Those with time to linger may enjoy fresh bread, pastries, coffee, breakfast and lunch in a cozy space that feels like a cross between family farmhouse and retro diner.

Janet’s is the product of many years of work and friendship. And one impulsive yes.

Co-owners Janey Gioiosa and Will Darsie met at MarieBette in Charlottesville, where Darsie was a barista and Gioiosa worked in the basement bakery. Their paths diverged for a while, but they reconnected when Darsie became co-owner and operator of MarieBette’s second location, and convinced Gioiosa to leave her desk job and manage the kitchen there. Gioiosa went on to start her own company, Janey’s Breads, baking wood-fired sourdough made from local grains, and selling it at farmers markets.

Gioiosa recounts, “Two years later, Will calls and says, ‘Hey, do you want to open up a restaurant with me?’ And I was like, ‘Yes!’ And he’s like, ‘Take a day to think about it.’ And I said, ‘Okay, I will, but yes!’”

Darsie says the goal is for Janet’s to feel like “a home away from home.” Photos of the friends’ parents and grandparents — and Gioiosa’s childhood hog trophies — decorate the walls. What Gioiosa calls her “grandma window” provides a view from the dining area into the kitchen.

“Our tagline is ‘fancy enough’,” Gioiosa says. “You can come in and have a nice little latte and a cookie, or a full ladies-who-lunch moment. Or you can cry in your coffee in the corner.” Whatever the occasion, Darsie and Gioiosa credit Janet’s staff as the most important element in making the café feel welcoming.

In addition to making Janet’s a neighborhood gathering place, Gioiosa and Darsie cultivate local connection through their use of local grain. “Ninety percent of the flours in the bakery are locally milled,” Gioiosa says. The shop uses Deep Roots Milling in Roseland, a water-powered stone mill built in the 1790s (the last still in commercial operation in Virginia), and Grapewood Farm, an organic and family-run farm and stone mill in Montross. Stone milling preserves more of a grain’s flavor and nutrients than roller milling, which instead prioritizes processing speed and shelf stability.

Gioiosa’s interest in local grains began during her tenure at Little Hat Creek, a wood-fired bakery in Nelson County run by Ben Stowe and Heather Coiner. Coiner founded the Common Grain Alliance, an organization that supports and connects people involved with local grain, whether as farmers, millers, bakers, or partakers.

“I walked into her bakery, and she has bags of millet flour, rye flour, spelt flour and rice flour, and I had no idea what any of those things were or how to use them,” Gioiosa (who is now a member of CGA’s board) remembers.

Working at Little Hat Creek, Gioiosa came to know not only a diverse array of mid-Atlantic grains, but also the farmers and millers who grow and process them. Gioiosa found the interpersonal connections as enriching as the grain itself.

“Fred [Sachs], at Grapewood Farms, would drive two hours to my house and deliver my spelt flour for me. It’s beautiful grain, but it’s about the people and the connections, that’s what kept me going back,” she says. When Gioiosa started Janey’s Breads, she baked exclusively with local flour. She now brings those partnerships to the kitchen at Janet’s.

Local grains keep baking interesting for the baker. Making bread is “a repetitive business,” Gioiosa says. “Using something that adds a different, questionable element is how you keep learning and growing as a baker.”

“The fun part, for me, is how I can incorporate all these specialty flours, the barley flour and rice flour and spelt flour, into what is just a chocolate chip cookie,” Gioiosa says. Playful variations on classic recipes are all over Janet’s menu, from buckwheat chocolate crinkle cookies to a yogurt parfait with purple sweet potato.

Janet’s menu choices are also guided by popular request and personal whimsy.

“It’s honestly sometimes just what I’m craving,” Darsie admits.

Darsie and Gioiosa also tune the menu to what their neighbors enjoy. “Someone came up and said that their grandmother used to make them apple hand pies. So, cool! It’s never leaving the menu now,” Gioiosa says.

Darsie and Gioiosa say they have felt welcomed by the neighborhood, and supported by other Richmond bakers. “Evrim [Dogu] of Sub Rosa comes in all the time, and he’s been such a source of knowledge for me,” says Gioiosa. “And my mom comes in all the time!”

Janet’s Cafe & Bakery is open at 4701 Forest Hill Ave. on Tuesday-Friday from 7:30 a.m.- 2 p.m. and for brunch service Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m.-2 p.m.