Cherish Matias moved to southern Illinois in 2022 to the community of Metropolis for its affordability, and because she said she could envision raising her children in this town of six-thousand people. She said she quickly found her footing in Metropolis, which is well known for its ties to Superman and its superhero-themed attractions, and decided this would be a wonderful place for a unique retail concept that aligned with her background in early education.
She opened Cheri’s Berries Cafe and Play to provide children with an indoor play space, and for parents, the business serves as a cafe with coffee, baked goods, and light meal options.
“I came up with this idea because I’ve been in early childhood education my entire life, and I wanted something to support the community and small children in my area. So, I combined it with my love of baking and cooking,” stated Matias.
Seed of an idea
Long before Cherish moved to this quiet town along on the banks of the Ohio River, she was shaping young minds in the classrooms of Atlanta, Georgia. A pre-K teacher by training, Cherish earned her degree from Liberty University in Virginia and poured nearly her entire professional life into a love of learning.
“I’ve really been in early childhood education my whole life up until I started homeschooling my children,” recalled Cherish. “When I started homeschooling them, I became a cottage baker, and I sold food at our local farmer’s market.”
For Cherish, those farmer’s markets would serve as a dress rehearsal for combining two of Cherish’s deepest passions: nurturing children and scratch cooking.
“When I moved to Metropolis, I realized that there wasn’t a whole lot of activities for children to do in this area to expand their minds and help further their education,” explained Cherish. “This is a small town, and sometimes there’s just not enough activities to go around for all small kids.”
“We only have the schools and a youth center. We don’t really have anything fun for kids to do around here at all,” Cherish continued. “We have a bowling alley, but that gets old after the first few times.”
What makes Cheri’s Berries even more remarkable are the personal touches brought to the business. Every playhouse, every painted wall, every plank of flooring carries the fingerprints of people who love Cherish Matias, including her husband, Romeo.
“It’s exactly how I imagined it,” Cherish recalled warmly. “I took the time and I designed everything that we have, from the inside of each and every little playhouse to the tech room, and everything is just all my own design. Our family did all of the work. My dad and my brother came up from Atlanta and they helped build the houses. My husband and I installed the flooring. All of my friends have been here the whole time helping us paint, install other flooring, put up pictures. Everything was done just with our little group of people.”
A business powered by heart
Cheri’s Berries Cafe and Play officially opened its doors in late 2025 and from the very beginning, Cherish says the business has been very popular with families in Metropolis.
“Things are going very well,” Cherish said. “I feel like the community has been very receptive to this type of business. I feel like people are really happy to have somewhere that they can bring their children, and they can work on their laptops, or just meet with a friend for coffee or lunch while their children are playing.”
Walk through the entrance and the concept reveals itself quickly. This is a very unique play space.
“The business model is when you come in, you have an hour and a half of playtime,” explained Cherish. “During that time, you can order food, coffee, and your children can go in any of the rooms that we have. We also offer special event and birthday parties. Sometimes we have 20 to 30 children in here that are just playing together, but they’re not always together and it’s very good for their social skills.”
The space generally serves families with younger children, although teenagers have started to drop by and experiment at their Influencer Corner and create TikTok’s or they may visit the Technology Room, according to Cherish and utilize a Nintendo Switch. However, old-fashioned play time is encouraged most at Cheri’s Berries, and any screen time comes with guardrails and intention.
“I think that we’re successful because we give an alternative to screens, for sure,” Cherish said. “We do have access to technology here, but it is all kid-friendly and parent-monitored. We always say parents must have their eyes on them at all times because we want to make sure that they’re being monitored, because a lot of children just have unfiltered access to those things at home.
“I believe that children learn the best through play,” explained Cherish. “In play, you can gain math skills, reading skills, you can gain social skills. And those are things that small children need that a lot of times, sitting eight hours a day at a desk, they don’t get.”
The cafe menu carries a similar spirit of homemade authenticity. Cheri’s Berries serves what Cherish describes as Mexican-American fusion. But she says the menu is always evolving and reflects her creativity and the preferences of her customers.
”We are making changes every week. And there are some weeks we’re offering tamales and tacos. Then there are other weeks that we’re offering croissants, sandwiches and wraps.”
Nothing on the menu arrives from a supplier, according to Cherish, just to be reheated. Every item is made from scratch and it’s time commitment that Cherish welcomes with pride.
“My day never ends,” Cherish said with a laugh that carried more truth than exhaustion. “I get here at 8:00 a.m., sometimes 7:30, and I start turning on all the lights, start the oven for the day. And a lot of times I leave here at 10 or 11:00 at night because I’m baking, and prepping. Nothing comes directly from a supplier and gets thrown in the oven. Everything is homemade pasta salad, homemade chicken salad. So usually at the end of the night, I’m still shredding chicken, mixing up salad mix for the next day. Absolutely, it’s tiring, but this is my dream, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Cherish has three part-time employees who to make the business run, but Cherish is refreshingly candid about the daily realities of running a family-operated business in a small town.
“This is a place filled with joy throughout the week, but we do have a few challenges,” acknowledged Cherish. “There are times we have children where the toys break, or we have to replace things often. We have staffing challenges on occasion because we are a family-run cafe. There are days that we have to say, ‘Oh well, we’re having a family day today,’ and we have to close. It’s a small community, so finding staff sometimes can be a little bit of a challenge,” acknowledged Cherish while noting that staffing can tax the business on days when it is hosting multiple birthday parties or events.
“When we do parties and events, sometimes we have one event in the morning and it’s a princess theme. And then in the afternoon, we have another party and it’s a turtle theme,” noted Cherish. “We have to go in and schedule staffing accordingly, just make sure that we get everything exactly perfect for each family. Our goal is to make this a wonderful, memorable experience for them.”
And then of top of everything else, Cherish is the mother of two children.
“Being a working mom with a nine year-old and a five year-old is challenging,” Cherish observed with a loving smile. “They basically work here, too. They help clean up the play areas and they take out the trash sometimes. But in the midst of that, we’re doing homework and still parenting throughout the day. So, it can be challenging, but it’s also rewarding to hear kids come in and say, ‘Your son is in my class, and he told me all about your business.’ I think that my children are proud of me, and they’re proud of what I do.”
For a business with no traditional advertising budget, Cheri’s Berries has built its audience with remarkable efficiency, one social media post at a time.
“I would say 75% of my business is on Facebook, which I started growing on Facebook three years ago when I was at the farmers market,” said Cherish. “I would constantly be posting pictures of cakes and things that I was selling and made sure to tell everybody I saw, ‘Oh, follow me on Facebook.’ So we are growing. We’ve gained a thousand followers on Facebook since we’ve opened.”
That digital community is a natural extension of what Cherish has discovered about retail in small-town life.
“I feel like retail has given me a sense of community,” Cherish said quietly. “Being in this small town and not having any family in this area, it’s really nice to have the same faces in over and over again and to just experience that. I had never been in retail before this, but I felt like I could make this work because I have a love for people in my community.”
At the end of every long day, after the ovens cool, the playhouses are wiped down, and the last customer has headed home, that love for community is what Cherish returns to when someone asks her why any of this matters.
“Cheri’s Berries Cafe and Play matters to our community because there is nothing like us around,” said Cherish. “I feel like there’s nowhere in this area where kids can come and see kids their own age that aren’t directly related to them. A lot of children that aren’t in daycare; they come here to learn those social skills that they need.”
Endless hours, endless joy
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that belongs exclusively to people who have built something entirely their own. Cherish knows this exhaustion intimately.
“If someone had given me advice about retail before I got started, it probably should have been that the work never ends,” said Cherish with a smile. “There are times that I’m talking with people about birthday parties at 11:30 at night, because that’s when a mother has available to discuss when she can schedule her child’s party, or that I would be here at 5:00 some mornings because we have to bake for 400 families for a weekend.”
Somewhere between the playhouses her father and brother hammered together and the homemade food that fills the cafe each morning, Cherish built something that families in Metropolis can truly claim as their own.
“It’s so rewarding to have this business because I see all of these little faces that they leave and they come back, and their parents say they were begging to go to Cheri’s Berries or the big pink wall,” said Cherish with a giggle. “That is my biggest accomplishment, is having children come back. And they’re so excited to see me. They’re so excited to see the toys that they played with last time. I just really love that. I love that we are a part of making children’s memories.”
