Business is brewing in downtown Lydonville.
The “Grindstone Café”, a coffee shop with fair trade organic coffee, is seeing more and more traffic every day. Having been opened for eight months, “things overall are pretty good” said Nathaniel Wright, one of the co-owners.
With downtown traffic and its current location, the cafe is hoping business will increase, especially with the cold weather.
“Being here on Depot Street, it has free parking, a lot of town walking traffic… and winter is on its way,” said Wright.
With a wide selections of tea, tea lattes, Italian sodas, blended ice drinks, hot and white chocolate, espresso based drinks, steamers and single brews, customers can also get a quick bite to eat from muffins to cookies. The café is open 6 AM – 6 PM on Sunday-Friday.
The Grindstone also features artists’ talents. Every month, the café will feature a visual artist’s works upon their walls. This ranges from photography to ceramic based decorations, but this is not limited to just showing off one’s work. If an artist wishes to sell, the café will assist with doing so, with 10 percent of the price going to café.
On Sundays, the café also has an Open Mic, starting around 2 PM if there is enough participants, where everyone who is interested is allowed to come perform, listen or even just come enjoy a cup of coffee.
Before opening, the café struggled with a name.
“We were thinking of a list of 20 different names that best described the earthy feel or atmosphere we were going for, so we decided on the Grindstone Café,” said Wright.
The café was originally started to see if it would work out.
“Well…It really started to see if we could do this. We didn’t go to college and we wanted to go on a business adventure,” said Wright. “It seemed like a promising business. Everyone wants a cup, whether it is tea or coffee, even when times are hard.”