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| 5/20/2009 10:54:00 AM Email this article • Print this article |
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After almost 30 years of business, the ABC Cafe will close at the end of June. The cafe counter of ABC Cafe (photo by Taryn Thompson) |
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Alphabet Stew
Taryn Thompson
Reporter
The story of ABC Café involves a complex, intricate history and a cultural staple in a town where eccentric lifestyles collide. What for some was a spot to get wholesome, nourishing food, and for others a gallery of music and art, ABC will soon fade from the radar, boxing up a unique venue for social connections. ABC Café will officially close at the end of June after almost 30 years as an anchor in an ever-changing town.
Owner, cook, and sole proprietor since 1997, Ken Hallett has seen the rise and fall of a legendary spot in the Ithaca restaurant scene. Hallett has been working at ABC since its inception as a collective in 1980; he joined a year later.
For almost 20 years - from the time ABC first opened until 1999 - the cafe consumed only the left half of its current home, where the full-service restaurant is now. "It worked for years and years," Hallett said. "The rent was low and the economy was different." The cooperative eventually dwindled into a three-person partnership, but soon the restaurant started to outgrow the kitchen. What is now the café side used to be a laundromat, so Hallett approached the landlord asking to take over that half.
"We had two investing partners that would put up the money for the expansion and was going to manage the wait staff," he said. "The other woman was going to manage the coffee shop, and I'd manage the kitchen. Basically, what happened was that they backed out at the last minute."
Hallett said it was a beneficial choice to expand because the kitchen was able to produce three times as much food. "But I wound up going heavily into debt and had to take out a lot of high-interest loans for the expansion, and I had to run a business that was twice as big," he said. "It was move that had to be done, and the business was successful."
Within three years, business doubled. "From a worker standpoint, it was great because I could go crazy back in the kitchen and not affect the music or the dining room," he said. "But after we expanded it was never quite the same for me. In retrospect, if I could have done something differently, I should have had another business plan in place when the partnership fell through."
ABC's long-term lease officially ran out in December 2008. Since then, the café has been operating on a month-to-month basis. Aware of the impending expiration date, Hallett said he started looking for future owners a year prior. "I had prospective buyers lined up and we had some paperwork written over. I kind of let them run the business for a while - sort of as a trial," Hallett said. "Then right when they took over the business the recession hit and our sales took a big drop."
Hallett explained that he left in November of 2008 for personal pursuits. He handed the business over to the prospective buyers, who came from within the cafe: Ananda Barreno, Aron Gutman, and at third, who requested to remain anonymous. Barreno and Gutman, a wait-staff manager and kitchen manager respectively, invested personal funds in an attempt to help resuscitate the business.
"Financially, they weren't making it, so they backed out of the sales agreement," Hallett said. "They got slammed by the recession and when I sold the restaurant it was with the idea that I'd stay on and help them manage it and cook and show them the ropes, but I had to leave for health reasons."
Hallett returned recently to help figure things out. "Because the sale never went through, legally I'm still liable for all the taxes and accounts payable," he said. "It seems like ABC Café can't be ABC Café without me here. That's what the universe is saying, I think. I'm coming back to kind of close this chapter out and close it down as ABC Café."
A waitress herself for four years, Barreno has been running the restaurant since November. She said the partnership decided not to sign the agreement in order to avoid bankruptcy. "Due to the recession, we didn't proceed with the signing of the paperwork because we were not sure how the restaurant was going to go, what was going to happen," she said. "Ken has come back to help take care of the paperwork, and I'm... running the rest of the restaurant, doing payroll, scheduling, all sorts of stuff. The other two are done."
Barreno said she and the other two had contributed a significant sum and remain invested, both financially and emotionally. "I'm staying here because this is something I believe in and I'm going to see it through until the end," she said. "They need to go elsewhere to pay their bills."
Wendy Gutman, a regular customer and wife of Aron Gutman, is herself heavily invested socially in ABC and financially by default. "We all really hoped that we could make some changes and possibly could have if the recession didn't hit at this particular time," she said. "There are restaurants in town that aren't as challenged as this one, with years of mismanagement, that are closing. With all the challenges we faced and the recession, our efforts felt like a drop in the bucket. Whatever we were doing - improvements, time, energy - it was too little, too late."
Other employees, patrons and artists have expressed concern and a desire to help, Barreno said. "The employees have been doing everything they possibly can for this restaurant," she said. "I moved here with the intention of being part of a community that's progressive and proactive and ideally vegetarian and eco-friendly. That's why I became a part of this place, because of all the little things it does to be a big part of the community. Supporting the local, whether it's musicians, artists, suppliers. Everybody knows everybody."
One local musician and regular patron, Nate Richardson, said he and his family like the friendly vibe. "We run into friends there all the time and join up with other families spontaneously," he said. "We'll invite friends who happen to walk in to join us; the community feeling and spirit is very strong."
Richardson added that the ABC Café was one of the first places he ever encountered when he first visited Ithaca in 1998. "I found myself at ABC within hours of arriving," he said. "I've always identified it with Ithaca, and [Ithaca] won't be the same. There needs to be a youth-oriented place where hippies feel comfortable going. Those types of places are important to any collegetown culture."
Richardson has played with different bands at ABC over the years, and said he always felt very supported by the staff. Local musician John Simon said ABC was the place where two of his bands debuted. Hallett said the cafe hosts musical performances at least three or four nights each week, adding that the character of ABC grew out of the character of the community.
"We tried to [have] a place where people can express themselves - artistically, hanging out and talking - or as workers not having to wear a corporate logo," he said. "ABC is about the community."
That's why it will be a tough transition for current ABC employees, Gutman argued. "It's a very laid back vibe, very creative," she said. "The baker can try out different things, new recipes; you can listen to music you like while you work. It's flexible; there isn't that overhead of corporate micromanagement. It feels like each person is in charge of themselves."
Aron Gutman had been working in the kitchen for almost five years when found another job in early May. In his opinion, there were some incongruities that lingered between management tactics.
"The thing that defines this place, for me, is the fact that it seems caught between the collective beginnings and an actual business," Gutman said. "It never really made that transition. Ken left a lot of the cooperative elements in place but in a way was kind of running a benevolent dictatorship."
Gutman added that Hallet was in charge but expected people to take more responsibility. "There was a sense that people who worked here didn't want to be told what to do. There was room for creativity but also room for screwing things up," he said. "To me there was a real contradiction to trying to preserve that [history] and offering a forum for workers to say what they want."
For Jake Seegers, a dishwasher at ABC since 2006, the cafe symbolizes happiness. "A lot of the best things in my life in the past couple of years have come from ABC," he said. "When I didn't have a place to stay, people there helped me find a roommate. I just met so many amazing people through that place."
Seegers added that meeting people who were positive thinking and supportive was a big help. "It has been an epicenter of all the good things that life has brought me," he said. "It makes me worried sometimes that I won't have that without ABC."
The cafe is widely appreciated for its menu, too. "We serve great natural food, a lot from local suppliers, with no preservatives," Hallett said. "I thought we were always kind of connected to respective nature: good, wholesome food that was ethically raised and didn't come from exploitative sources. Food that is delicious and healthy."
"It's one of the few places where you can choose from an almost purely vegetarian menu," Richardson added. "That's going to be a huge loss to the community."
Simon, a self-declared omnivore, said his kids' eating habits run the gamut. "ABC has really been the place where we all can find something that we love," he said. "My meat craving doesn't kick in because things are so healthy and flavorful, and I love their stir fries."
Simon's wife, Lynn, is vegan and has been going to ABC since she moved to the area in the early 80s. "I just love the casual atmosphere and that kind of food," she said. "It's very unusual to find that kind of homemade vegetarian whole food with a local sensibility all in one place."
Simon said it's really the next best thing to eating at home. "Many restaurants try to accommodate vegan, but that's the only establishment where I have so many choices and it's all stuff I like," she said. "I'll miss it very much."
Hallett said ABC Café will go out in style. Throughout the month of June, the cafe will host benefit concerts and other events, and Hallett will be cooking up special dinners. The idea is to close up shop on a positive note in recognition of a successful business and so that employees can leave with closure.
"We're going to do it like a celebration, not like we felt we failed," Hallett said. "We had a good run."
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