Owner Kari Blish flies the "Open" flag in front of the the Flour Patch for the first time since the August flood, on Wednesday, November 23. Photo by Lissa Harris.
In a small town, every business is vital. But it's the ones that feed people that always seem to be the beating heart of the community. When a cafe or a restaurant shuts down, a little bit of the life of the town goes out with it.
So although Margaretville still has a long way to go before its business district is whole again, it's beginning to feel a little more like itself lately, with most of its flood-damaged restaurants finally reopened.
The Flour Patch, a beloved bagel bakery and cafe on Bridge Street, reopened the day before Thanksgiving, after months of post-flood cleanup and rebuilding. Across the street, Margaretville's iconic diner, the Bun 'N Cone, opened a few days earlier. Another nearby eatery, the Cheese Barrel, has been open for nearly two months in a temporary location in the Galli-Curci building.
The late-August floods from Tropical Storm Irene tore through the Granary Building on Bridge Street, which houses both the Flour Patch and Coldwell Banker Timberland Properties. The waters destroyed equipment, ripped through walls and windows, and reduced a massive stone wall in front of the building to rubble.
Since the flood, owner Kari Blish has been tracking the progress of the cleanup at the Flour Patch through photos, posted on the cafe's Facebook page. Here's a little before-and-after.
September 2, 2011: Preparing to rebuild. (Photo from the Flour Patch's Facebook photo album.)
November 23, 2011: Business as usual. (Photo by Lissa Harris.)
On Wednesday, November 23, the Catskill Mountain News ran a story about the reopening of several local businesses, including the Flour Patch and the Bun 'N Cone.
"A sense of normalcy is beginning to return to Margaretville," wrote reporter Pauline Liu -- herself a local business owner, who runs Casey Joe's Coffeehouse in nearby Arkville with her husband, Joe Moskowitz.
Speaking of openings (and closings): This week, Casey Joe's closes to make way for the Cha Cha Hut BBQ, which is moving into the coffeehouse's building in Arkville from its former digs in the back of the Hogan's convenience store in Andes. But on Facebook, Moskowitz writes that Casey Joe's will rise again:
At some point in the not so distant future, it will reopen on the other side of the street. I love that building. It's a two century old livery stable (Stage Coach stop). It's terminally cool and has been under-utilized since we bought and restored it. There are two floors, a total of well over 2000 usable sq ft, and we plan to find uses for all of it.
