Sherman Cafe in Union Square will permanently close this Sunday

[ron_newman]

Sherman Cafe has announced on Facebook that they are going out of business this weekend. Their remaining hours, for the next three days:

Friday - 7 am to 3 pm
Saturday - 8 am to 3 pm
Sunday - 8 am to NOON

and that's it.

Established in 2003, Sherman predates many other things people now associate with Union Square: the farmers' market, the Fluff festival, other ArtsUnion events, Bloc 11, Union Square Main Streets, and trendy ethnic restaurants.

Since their Facebook page could disappear soon after they close, I'm repeating their entire announcement behind this lj-cut:

Attention, Union Square brethren!

After approx. 4,000 days in business as Sherman Cafe, this is our last hurrah, for by the end of this week, the Cafe shall be no more!

There’s too much to be said in a social media post, but, basically, this past year we’ve been in rebuilding mode anyway. Sherman’s 10 years old, almost 11: that’s a long time in cafe years (which are longer than dog years, did you know?) Although we tried to punch it up with owls and stuff, the place needs to be redone; for that, money needs to be raised, and that in turn begs a bunch of questions, like, what kind of business should we be running, anyway? Not that we’re complaining. For a place opened on a shoestring, Sherman has lasted a long time, but there’s only so much mileage we were ever going to get out of that bathroom.

And Union Square has changed: when we opened, our neighborhood was graduate students and post-post-collegiate types (like ourselves actually) and a bunch of old hippies and Old Somerville. Many of you (us?) have stayed in Union, and God bless you, but you don’t have seem to have time to hang out in the afternoons anymore, because you’re gainfully employed! You’re coming in for breakfast and weekends are as busy as any cafe owner could wish, but the writing on the wall in Union Square is: brunch, bistros and booze. That’s cool, those are some of our favorite activities, but it’s not Sherman.

So rather than lament the past, we’re going to just have a fond goodbye and let the place become another thing entirely. Come in this week and say farewell. We probably won’t always have everything we’re supposed to, but we will have a firm handshake/emotional hug/crisp salute for those who have patronized the establishment.

And Sherman, then, hopefully, will ascend to the firmament: the Union Square in the clouds, where it’s always a pretty great Saturday in May, a place where the rent is never risen and meals taxes are never due, and somebody is having a party later. You’ll find us next door to Tir na nOg, eat, Ronnarong, Macondo, Precinct, and PA’s before the wall came down, and that old Irish Eyes (but only for the karaoke). Our message to you is the same as anyone’s who is facing the end of a thing: Enjoy this moment, this neighborhood, this place we have: there is nothing like our dumb square anywhere. We’ve checked.

A million blessings to you, our customers: if we could do it all over again, we would (though we’d probably have charged approximately 5% more the whole time). Thank you, and see you soon.

They also commented on Union Square Main Streets' Facebook page:

Hey guys! It's a cafe posting like a person! Yes, we've had operational problems in the last year or two. Well, kind of forever. We're closing not because of poor sales, but because of the necessity of raising a bunch of capital to rebuild the cafe. Probably about $60,000 to $80,000 to do it right, plus we'd have to close for a month or two at least, thus losing about the same amount of money in sales. Getting the capital isn't actually the problem, it's more that, if we spend effectively $100k+, does it make sense to open a coffeeshop again, or are there better things that could be done with that amount of money?

We opened on a real shoestring back when Union had nothing much going on, food-wise or retail-wise, and we had a tiny, hard-to-work in kitchen and a one-customer-at-a-time point of sale.

So it's not really about gentrification, except insofar as people with more money are uptight about hippie-style service. Ahem.

Comments

[pixelsand.livejournal.com]

"Getting the capital isn't actually the problem, it's more that, if we spend effectively $100k+, does it make sense to open a coffeeshop again, or are there better things that could be done with that amount of money?"

I guess it's their prerogative to spend money how they want, but in terms of contributing to the overall feel of an area, I don't think 100k+ is all that much to keep a cafe like Sherman's around. Modest condos in the area go for three times that amount at least. Yeah Bloc 11 is a nice place but it's just like any other "hip" coffee shop that operates in all the popular neighborhoods. Decent place to hang out but kinda glossy and over engineered from a design standpoint. Good for techies, I guess, which seem to be the dominant demographic at this point. The hippie/artist types that would prefer the more casual low key feel of Sherman's, don't really have a place any more. It reminds me of Davis losing Someday and putting in a decent but generic replacement. Something similar will probably happen here, and Union will be worse off for it. Maybe not financially but in terms of character.

Also, does anybody know what's going to happen to the Market? It doesn't say if that's staying or going, though I assume from the language it's going.

[madrigal.livejournal.com]

The owner of Sherman is opening an ice cream place where the old Sherman Market was (Gracie's Ice Cream).

There's another coffee shop in Union - Fortissimo.

[ron_newman]

If they don't hurry that along, they'll miss the prime ice cream season entirely.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

I'm a hippie/artist type and I love Bloc 11. I tried to like Sherman's, I really did, but they never had any food I wanted to eat and when I did go there I was never satisfied. Still, I can get behind being sad about losing your favorite coffee shop-- I get it, really I do. Just please don't be getting all down on another local original in the process, K? Bloc 11 is a treasure (too).

[somerfriend.livejournal.com]

You are the Maureen Corrigan of coffee shops

[genarti]

Oh man, that makes me sad. Sherman Cafe was my favorite coffeeshop in the area, by far; I don't live near enough to go there regularly (and, yeah, working a 9-5 meant it was basically a weekends-only jaunt for me), but I'd try to make it there as often as I could. The food was great, and the whole place had a hippieish vibe that's harder and harder to find. I'll miss that place a whole lot. The other coffeeshops that have opened since in Union Square are nowhere near as good -- definitely not enough for me to find an excuse to walk to Union just for them.