Welcome back to Wednesday's Spotlight. Today, we are looking at a gas station, convenience store, restaurant, and hidden cocktail bar operating from one Lakeville, Minnesota, property. Together, the businesses generated nearly $5 million in revenue in their first year. The interesting part is how the model uses the same location, traffic, and kitchen infrastructure to support multiple revenue streams throughout the day.

This week's business is a gas station, convenience store, restaurant, and hidden cocktail bar in Lakeville, Minnesota, operated by Tony Donatell's Wondrous Collective. Donatell took over the struggling convenience store and neighboring empty storefront in late 2024, opened The Farmer's Cellar behind a fake cooler door in May 2025, and turned the property into a destination. In its first year of operation, the three businesses generated nearly $5 million in combined revenue.

The revenue mix was just over $1.7 million from The Farmer's Cellar, about $1.4 million from the convenience store, and almost $1.9 million from the gas station between May 2025 and April 2026. The Farmer's Cellar contributes less revenue than fuel, but its economics are very different. Roughly 70% of its sales come from beverages, including high-margin cocktails, beer, wine, and liquor. The convenience store, which had been losing at least $10,000 a month before Donatell took over, became profitable after the bar opened and started sending waiting customers back through the store for snacks and drinks.

The moat is that Donatell has turned an ordinary roadside stop into three reasons to visit the same property. Farmer's Grandson handles the everyday traffic with breakfast, burgers, pizza, tacos, fried chicken, and other convenience food. A central kitchen sits between the store and cocktail bar, allowing the same footfall to support multiple concepts. Then, behind what appears to be a soda cooler, customers enter a separate Prohibition-inspired room. The surprise is part of the product. The food brings repeat local traffic, the pumps bring convenience traffic, and the speakeasy creates Friday- and Saturday-night demand that a normal gas station would not capture.

This is also not Donatell's first attempt at the model. He opened his first Farmer's Grandson in an Eagan gas station in 2008 and eventually built enough demand for breakfast and lunch to create lines out the door. The problem was dinner. Customers liked the food but did not see a gas station as somewhere to take a date or celebrate. So when neighboring space became available, Donatell opened Burgers and Bottles in 2014, then converted a former repair shop into the hidden Volstead House speakeasy in 2015. One kitchen ultimately supported the convenience-store food operation, burger restaurant, and speakeasy. Lakeville is essentially the second-generation version of a concept he has been refining for more than a decade.

The interesting part is how each business changes the economics of the others. Gasoline and convenience retail create existing traffic and infrastructure, while food gives customers a reason to spend more once they arrive. The speakeasy then adds a higher-margin evening business without needing a completely separate destination. Customers who come for cocktails may buy snacks while waiting, people stopping for food discover the bar, and the hidden entrance itself generates word of mouth. 

Fuel accounts for close to $1.9 million of the nearly $5 million in revenue, but its economics are very different from those of a cocktail bar, which makes the combined sales figure a poor proxy for profitability. The hospitality side is also expensive to run. Donatell says staffing is his highest cost, while food, utilities, insurance, card fees, and other operating expenses continue to rise. 

The lesson is that Donatell did not increase the gas station's value by selling more gas. He leveraged the property's existing traffic and gave those customers more reasons to spend. The convenience store expanded into food, the food business created demand for a restaurant, and the speakeasy added an evening use for the same location. The nearly $5 million in revenue matters, but the more interesting part is how much additional spending he has been able to generate from one address.

Orange County aerospace CNC manufacturer asks $4.8M on $1.74M annualized revenue and $1.08M SDE

This aerospace and defense CNC shop operates roughly 24 machines from 4,500 square feet across four industrial suites and holds AS9100D, ISO 9001:2015, and Nadcap Fluid Distribution Systems credentials. Revenue increased from $1.45 million in 2023 to $1.62 million in 2025. Preliminary first-half 2026 results show $868,000 of revenue and $539,000 of normalized SDE, which the listing annualizes to about $1.74 million and $1.08 million, respectively. The $4.8 million asking price is therefore roughly 4.45x annualized SDE. The company has seven full-time employees, about $982,000 of equipment included in the sale, and pays approximately $7,110 a month in occupancy costs under a lease running through October 2029. Customers supply the raw material, reducing working capital requirements, while a proposed second shift could increase scheduled production hours by about 34%. 

Translation, if you own one: A comparable aerospace CNC shop with about $1.08 million of annualized SDE is being marketed at roughly 4.45x SDE. At that multiple, every $100,000 of normalized SDE translates to about $445,000 of asking value, before adjusting for customer concentration, equipment, certifications, and lease terms.

Source: Nadcap & AS9100D Aerospace CNC Manufacturer

Your lawyer’s diligence checklist can still miss the risks that actually determine whether the business works after closing. On Friday, we show how operators should exercise diligence on customer concentration, key-person dependency, and the seller’s actual reason for exiting.