The New Round House Bakery And Cafe is spectacular, it combines the comfort and coziness of a community cafe with the rich character and feeling of an old country store, which is what it was for well over a century here in Cambridge, N.Y.. The cafe had a “soft” opening this morning – soup, coffee, muffins, scones and cookies, as the kitchen is not yet finished.
The space is just amazing, rich oak and walnut and chestnut woods and cases, some more than 150 years old.
Your support of the Round House – readers of the blog donated more than $60,000 from all over the country – and for the idea of a community cafe helped make this possible, so did the many contributions and hard work of local residents and people from all over the country.
This community cafe was community supported in every possible way. Scott and Lisa Carrino have worked day and night for years to make this happen, they are exhausted but exhilarated.
The new cafe is located on the ground floor of Hubbard Hall, a beautiful restored vaudeville stage, now a community arts and theater and education center. It is right next door to the old Round House building. This block is the very heart and soul of our community, and town residents filled it up seconds after the doors opened the morning.
I imagine those counter chairs will be full much of the town.
If the Round House had not survived, it would have been a devastating blow to our village.
We missed our cafe in the two or three weeks since it closed for the move. It is such an important place for us.
This was a fight for community, for local jobs and revenue, for a gathering place that is not a chain store.
Small towns in rural America are places that our politicians and economists forgot, brushed aside to make room for the new global economy, corporate profits for box stores and franchises. Thanks to you good people, the Round House had enough money to shift gears when they couldn’t purchase their next door building and renovate the old general store, a gift shop in recent years.
This is an enormous boom to our Main Street (a popular macro-brewery has opened up in the old train station a couple of block s away), to the many young people who work in the cafe, to the people who live here, we can meet and see and talk to one another. The Round House is very literally a community cafe, they have art shows, talent nights, and weekly performances by local bands and musicians.
Our town is coming back to life.
Community is important. Community is not about being loved, it is about being known. It is vanishing all over America, it is standing its ground here.
The space is so historically and architecturally rich I imagine many people will come just to see the old woodwork and craftsmanship. The Army Of Good helped make this happen, and I thank you, the people in my town thank you, and the very idea of community is stronger and more enduring now.
Community is worth fighting for, it is the glue that holds societies together. If we could do it, anybody can do it.