Speakeasy reopens in new space

Article originally published as “Speakeasy reopens in new space” by Gordon Dritschilo

June 21, 2023

Rutland Herald

The Speakeasy Café’s move isn’t quite finished, but the coffee shop is settling into its new home.

“We’re not doing food until I get back from vacation,” owner Bridget Scott said earlier this week.

However, the café has reopened in its new location at 31 Center St., where it shares a storefront with Wild Kind Toys. Scott said the short move down Center Street hit a number of unexpected bumps.

“I thought we might be closed for as much as a week,” she said. “It turned into three and a half weeks. That was mostly to do with trying to schedule contractors, electricians, plumbers.”

More space, Scott said, is likely going to mean a few more of the café’s signature tables, with word-art portraits of writers. It’s also opening other possibilities. “I’m still trying to plan a future for all of it, really,” she said. “When I moved into the old space, it had been a café for a while, and I’d worked there, so I had a blueprint.”

The added room also has Scott thinking about in-house entertainment.

“With that prime space across the street from the Paramount, we think maybe it’s even incumbent on us to do some evening programming,” she said.

Another hole on Center Street looks poised to be filled. The Board of Aldermen this week voted unanimously to approve a $10,000 Business Incentive Assistance Program loan for Loose Luna Tea House and Gifts, a tea shop slated for the space vacated in Wonderfeet Kids’ Museum’s move around the block to the former Green Mountain Power Energy Innovation Center.

Proprietor Michelle Cordiero told the board she plans to offer premium tea and light fare alongside “artisan-type gifts,” hopefully from local producers, likening the two to the way Annie’s Book Stop once shared a building with Ben & Jerry’s.

“I think it’s something that’s missing right now in Rutland,” she said.