The young people’s food revolution continues in Washington County. Ashley and Jordan, who we’ve known for five or six years, are renting a former coffee shop in the nearby town of Greenwich and have some fascinating ideas about how to bring good food to a rural area and not go broke in the process.

This is a tough time for anyone selling food in any form; the new comers are bringing many new ideas.

We met Ashley when she worked at the Round House Cafe before Covid-19 did it in, and we met Gordon when we needed some urgent repairs on our farmhouse.

He did terrific work.

They first met in Burlington, Vt, where both of them went to live and work.

Ashley learned ho two back, and Jordan became a skilled and popular craftsman. After the pandemic, they and some other intelligent and gifted farm refugees returned, sometimes out of need, sometimes out of choice.

Maria and I always saw Ashley as someone who wouldn’t stick around to farm; we didn’t expect her to come back so soon and so committed to being here.

Smart kids leaving the farm life behind and moving is not a new story up there; what is new is that so many of these kids have decided to stay here to become carpenters and craftspeople, organic farmers, and or food entrepreneurs.

This is an agricultural country. Fewer and fewer kids want to stay on the farm, and hardly any come back.

Ashley and Gordon are starting a  coffee shop/restaurant called  “Coffee And..” They’ve been making and selling cookies,  bagels, rolls, and pastries at our farmer’s market.

The business was a hit, and when a coffee shop in Greenwich closed, Ashley and Gordon rented the place and are working hard to fix it up and open by Christmas.

Other farm refugees have opened food carts selling Tacos and New York-quality wood-fired Pizza.

It’s not just the young. Our friends Bob and Bonnie Warren opened a wildly successful Parisian-style food cart in the same town Ashley’s going to be working.

Renovated old food carts seem a very smart alternative to brick-and-mortar restaurants with high rent and many employees.

A young investor opened a brewery in nearby Schuylerville and invited a relative, an acclaimed Laotian chef, to open a restaurant in the brewery (we’re going to have lunch there today.)

Ashley admits that she has learned a lot from the troubles of older restaurant operators. Too much staff (or too little), rent, and overhead. They’re not going for fancy brick-and-mortar restaurants, expensive employee work compensation fees, taxes, or high rents.

Their new restaurant needs new plumbing and woodwork. Gordon can do it himself. The two are mostly doing their own renovations.

Increasingly, the new food sellers are finding old food carts, renovating them, and moving them around to meet their markets.

Ashley is thinking of re-imaging the coffee sheep, focusing on online orders, and having ready food, so people pick it up on their way to work without waiting in line for the food to be cooked.

They think about what people want, not just what their parents did or liked.

Ashley and Gordon are considering offering takeout dinners and muffins and staying lean and flexible.

A few years ago, it was impossible to find a restaurant that served anything but hamburgers, steaks, and coleslaw drowning in mayonnaise.

The Round House Cafe was revolutionary here. That world is changing. It was big and expensive to staff and operate.

These kids are impressive.

They bring open minds, creativity, lots of energy,  and a passion for good and healthy food.

They have already radically changed the choices Maria and I have when it comes to taking food out or going out to dinner, from Laotion dishes to delicious wood-fired pizza, not to mention Paris-quality crepes.

I’m okay with being old, but the world belongs to the young, and when it comes to food around here, the young are making the best of that. And we get to benefit. We love good food, and we love going out.

The town wins too. It needs people like Ashley and Gordon and Corey and Sarah (Shift Wood-Fired Pizza) to stay her and bring eating to life again.

Good luck, Ashley and Gordon; I love seeing anybody choose to do what they love; people are already buzzing about your new kind of coffee shop.