Place & time

We were spending time at our favorite Irvington watering hole, Snug, when we overheard a table of people talking about how Irvington needs more spaces for people to meet and just hang out with food and drinks. One person at the table mentioned that they had taken a survey about a potential cafe with live music and wondered what ever happened with that?

Our ears perked up immediately, they had to be referencing our survey right? It’s been 5 months since we launched the survey and other than one follow up blog post you have noticed it’s been exceptionally quite around here.

So what’s been going on? We’re still at it! But progress is slow. We’ve toured a few properties and have gotten very close to pulling the trigger once or twice, but each time we’ve been up against an investor with deeper pockets, as well as an accelerated timeline that didn’t feel right. Even if we had no competition, the process of finding a building that sits on a lot with green space that wouldn’t require rezoning has been challenging. We aren’t giving up, but after some months of exploration we realize that finding the right location will most likely be our biggest challenge.

We’ve also been keeping an eye on the redevelopment plans for the Irvington Plaza. The developers have spoken of putting in a ‘modern’ grocery store so that may impact how we incorporate the market part of our business plan. We still love the idea of having some produce, grab and go style meals and snacks, and some household goods, but it would be a waste if the community doesn’t actually need another place to get these items.

Lastly, we’re just trying to do things at the “right” time. We both have jobs, we have a family, and life is always happening. We don’t want to rush and not live up to this business we’ve been so excited to open for our neighborhood that we love so much.