Serving up a closure
Supermarket expansion could spell the end for Country Corner Café
3 comments below
With tables filled and a line outside the door Sunday morning, waitresses scramble to serve home-style breakfasts to patrons of all ages at Southold's Country Corner Café, which might have to close soon to make room for an expanded IGA.
For 12 years, the IGA and the Country Corner Café in Southold have successfully co-existed in the same building at the southeast corner of Main Street and Youngs Avenue -- a location that has historically housed a grocery store and a café.
But by the end of this summer, the café might not be around anymore.
In May, Country Corner Café owners Kelly and David Hunstein found out they were to "vacate the premises by September," when their current lease expires. Ms. Hunstein said they've sought longer leases during the 12 years they've been at that location, but IGA owner Charles Reichert would never give them one.
Mr. Reichert, who owns several IGAs across Long Island, including the store in Greenport, declined to comment when reached by phone at his main office in Fort Salonga.
Ms. Hunstein said the standoff could have been avoided if Mr. Reichert had been allowed to do what he's been trying to do for years -- move the Southold IGA to a bigger building.
Ms. Hussie said she looked at many places in Southold where Mr. Reichert was considering moving, but the ratio of parking space to floor space was "just impossible," she said.
In 2007, the stakeholders informed the town's planning department that they wanted the IGA to stay put. "As the anchor store on Main Street, the IGA supermarket is crucial to the vitality of Southold hamlet's business district," the stakeholders' state in their 2007 end-of-year-report. "The store's relocation from Main Street would adversely impact other smaller local businesses in the hamlet center."
And one of those businesses anchored on the IGA is the Country Corner Café itself.
"There was always a looming possibility that he could take over that space," Ms. Hunstein said. "And he would say that to us."
When Mr. Reichert last spoke to her and her husband, who is also a Southold Town police officer, about their lease, it was a very emotional meeting, said Ms. Hunstein.
"We were dumbfounded," she said. "We, of course, were extremely upset. [Mr. Reichert] started yelling, and he's really not a yeller. 'I can't wait around to build a new store,' he said. His defense was that it was necessary for him to do. So, OK? What can we do? He owns the building."
But Ms. Hunstein said she doesn't believe the 2,400 square feet occupied by her café will make much of a difference for the IGA.
"He thinks bigger is better," she said." But in this case, it's not. It's not what the majority of the community wants."
Southold resident Cathy Reilly has been distributing two petitions supporting the Country Corner Café -- one for adults and one for kids -- and a boycott of the IGA is in the works for September, she said.
She said that the restaurant has been especially important for local children over the years. Just before her 3-year-old daughter, Gracie, died from leukemia five years ago, Ms. Reilly took her to the Country Corner Café.
"She was so tiny, with this huge waffle cone," she said.
The first time her son, Christopher, was allowed to walk around the town as a 13-year-old, he and his friends met at the restaurant.
"They sat there like three little old men and ate their lunch," Ms. Reilly said.
Over the past week, The Suffolk Times has received more than a dozen e-mail messages from area residents concerned about the possible closing of the Country Corner Café.
"While we love the convenience of the IGA, we also love the Café and have been regular customers for almost 10 years now," wrote Giles Harrison. "It is a central part of the town in so many ways."
"In today's world, with all its stresses, it is very comforting to have a neighborhood restaurant," wrote Linda Benvenuto. "It becomes a 'family,' a place where people know your name."
"It is not just a luncheonette and ice cream parlor but a wonderful gathering spot," wrote Adrienne Lynch. "It serves a great many of our community's senior citizens as an easily accessible, affordable restaurant."
Ms. Hunstein said she and her husband have been shopping around for other locations, but the county Department of Health will not let them have even half the seating they have now, she said.
And that historic corner location, she said, will be impossible to re-create.
"We built that business up from nothing," she said, her voice beginning to quiver. "We worked 17 hours a day, seven days a week for a very long time. For him to scoop that out from under us is devastating."
eschultz@timesreview.com
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3 comments found
reopening? : 5/10/2010
I'd heard the cafe was reopening in the spring; any news?
Country Cafe : 8/10/2009
I have never posted any comment on any website ever, but my nephew Yianni and I, well, we love this place. We have been coming to the cafe since he and my other 3 children (not including my niece Calliope) for years. Oftentimes, I realize that expansion is necessary for communities to thrive, but in this instance, there must be some compromise. Yianni and I are against it anyway.
Closing Country Corner Cafe : 8/8/2009
If Mr. Reichert really wants to be seen as less of a "meanie"......why doesn't he include an upstairs in the planned store addition he wishes to do? Put in a small elevator and cafe diners can go upstairs to dine, looking down at passing traffic, or Christmas lights, or parades passing by, etc etc. I think it would be quite charming for cafe diners to have a little window on the world so to speak. It certainly would be unique and fun for diners and it may even draw MORE people to the grocery store. Did Mr. Reichert ever stop to consider how many people shop in his store just because they are already parked for the cafe too? Not sure an upstairs or an elevator would be allowed because of building codes and all, but I am thinking it would be a really sweet place for a meal-upstairs, overlooking downtown Southold village.
