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When downtown Cookman Avenue’s Twisted Tree Cafe opens their doors for business on Wednesday, customers will see two new faces behind the counter.

Owners Steve and Naomi Pagidas have sold the location to former Bond Street Bar manager Rachel Lucisano [shown above, at right] and her partner Jason Stumpf [at left]. Over the next four weeks, the Pagidases will train Lucisano and Stumpf to bake the home made breads, muffins, granolas and other healthy options the Twisted Tree cafe is known for, according to Steve Pagidas.

Pagidas and his wife have owned and operated the cafe for the last four years, Steve Pagidas said. The two took ownership from the original owner, Clark Mitchell, who owned the location for six years before the Pagidas took over, he said.

The two new owners plan to keep the Twisted Tree’s reputation as a comfortable community cafe intact, which is an element passed down from Mitchell.

“When Clark started it, it was a very personal space,” said Pagidas. “The café separated from Clark didn’t make much sense. If anyone went [to the cafe] more than twice, he knew them.”

The same thing happened when the Pagidas took over, and the new owners are eager to follow suit.

“We intend to do the same thing,” said Stumpf. “We intend to be a part of the cafe in a day-to-day way.”

Stumpf and Lucisano plan to keep the concept of the location, menu and current cafe hours as-is.

“The gist of it is going to stay the same, the food is what makes the place so unique,” said Stumpf.

However, the interior of the location will see changes as time goes by.

“As we get our bearings with baking all the muffins and breads and running the café, we will be working on a plan to redo the space,” said Lucisano.

Stumpf is a full-time furniture builder, and the new cafe space will give him a chance to match a full interior space with the style of work that he does, he said.

For now, the interior design concept remains an abstract but the trajectory is headed toward an all-hand crafted interior.

“It will be a unique café, because I’m unable to make inexpensive chairs,” he said.

Stumpf’s work is custom by nature. Bar stools alone could cost upwards of $1000, and “it would be insane for someone to spend that kind of money— nine or 10 thousand dollars — on a couple of bar stools,” he said.

“Life, to me, is about raw materials and how to build from a base, not plug and play solutions, and that is what is going to define the space and the décor itself,” he said

The Twisted Tree was “never advertised for sale,” Steve Pagidas said, as the two were never actively looking to sell the business but had always thought of an eventual move to a warmer climate.

Every winter, Pagidas and his wife close the location and take a vacation to “recharge batteries,” he said. This year’s vacation took them back to the beaches of Hawaii for the sixth time, and by the time they returned to Asbury Park they were openly talking about making a serious move to a warmer climate to many of their long time customers — including Lucisano and Stumpf, he said.

Over the past eight years or so, the Pagidas have had more than a few conversations together about what their next move would be.

Happenstance ushered in Lucisano and Stumpf.

The two live in the downtown Cookman Avenue area and Lucisano frequents the location a few times each week, she said. One conversation led to another and the establishment has officially changed hands.

The Pagidas, Lucisano and Stumpf declined to give the purchase price.

Lucisano had looked into purchasing the location when it was on the market four years ago, but heard there was already an interested party (the Pagidas) and didn’t want to get into a bidding war, she said.

The Twisted Tree cafe is located at 609 Cookman Ave.

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