Thanks in no small measure to the generosity of many of you, my town will keep its very local and community-minded cafe. Scott and Lisa Carrino couldn’t work it out with their landlord to buy the building they were in, but a beautiful space opened up next door in Hubbard Hall, our funky and beautiful old restored Vaudeville Palace, now the Hubbard Hall Arts and Education Center.

Scott and Lisa raised nearly $70,000 to buy the cafe, but it wasn’t enough for that. It is enough to fix up this beautiful old space for a new cafe, just a few feet from the old one. Main Street lives here.

The space is beautiful and atmospheric – I love the old wooden shelves, and Scott and some carpenters and electricians are working hard to get the new space ready, it’s a major upgrade in so many ways.  The work has passed all the fire and health dept and zoning checks and will open pretty soon.

There is much more display space for cookies and cakes and local crafts and plenty of room for tables. In the back is  a huge cold storage room. They can also have bigger musical and other events here.

Scott is working like a demon to get it ready, we had coffee this morning before he left to go to Switzerland for a three-day Tai Chi convocation, he is a Tai Chi master teacher. It’s a short trip and I told him he was nuts to go to Europe for three days in the midst of all this work, but he was set on going, he loves Tai Chi.

It’s a great thing that this cafe can remain in our community when so many rural towns are losing their community and institutions, bleeding from lost factories and box store competition.  Scott hires a lot of people and pays a lot of taxes. And we don’t need empty storefronts in the middle of town.

There are three Wal-Marts not far away, the they are small business killers everywhere they go.

The Round House has become the soul of the town, and it is a miracle that Scott has done so well and figured things out. He has also nearly killed himself working so hard. He says things will be easier in the new space, it will be more efficient, his overhead will be less. It’s a big victory for community in our town, and I wish him the best with it.