06/23/2023
Coming soon: Something New! The vegan takeout operation that occupied the building for 2.5 years left a few months ago. I briefly considered selling the building but changed my mind, decided I want to stay on the block. I'm working with two people from the Belvoir area, Lezlie and Sam, to share the space for various purposes. Lezlie has a line of gluten-free food products. She currently tables at the Grace Farmers' market. Sam will do a coffee service. He is refurbishing the espresso machine. It will be available for ad hoc events. I will have some consignment from local farmers' market vendors, like Bill and Becky Ensinger's line of soaps. And I hope to bring back regular weekend music, which had just been getting started when the shutdown happened, and is critically missing from the Belvoir/Brainerd area since Andrew Kelsey died during the pandemic and Charles & Myrtles stopped being a wonderful thing. Lezlie and I have been in there cleaning and painting. I had to do some major plumbing work. There is more painting and whatnot to do, but perhaps in the next month operations will get started. I'm grateful on balance for the vegan op for being there, but it was far short of what I wanted to be happening in this unique neighborhood spot. It was rarely open and not welcoming to people when it was. They focused on takeout, and were unwelcoming as a style, a grumpy goth thing -- which worked for them. In this next phase it will be community focused, welcoming and open for people.
