Someday Café will CLOSE by August 15

[ron_newman]

I just came back from Someday, and confirmed the bad news. The café has not renewed its lease with the landlord (Chatham Light Realty), and the café's owner (Gus Rancatore, of Toscanini's ice cream) is disinclined to reopen it elsewhere in Davis Square. Unless someone changes his mind, the café must vacate by August 15, and most likely will close around August 1.

If you don't want this to happen, call Richard at Chatham Light, 617-354-4466 , and e-mail gus@tosci.com .

(for earlier discussion, see the post immediately below this one.)

[EDIT (6/27, 12:10 am): after exchanging e-mail and a phone call with Ian Judge, the manager of the Somerville Theatre, I have edited this post so that it no longer says that "the landlord is making them leave". Ian's statement is here. I'm going to leave the phone number and e-mail address in place; they came from a sign at the Someday's counter last night.]

Comments

[srl.livejournal.com]

What reasons does the landlord have for wanting them to leave? Is it a matter of being able to make more money from another tenant, or something else?

[ron_newman]

I don't know the answer to this. Might be worth calling the above phone number and asking, or just asking the folks at Someday tomorrow morning.

[sissychrissy1.livejournal.com]

I think I'm crying a little bit right now.

[schpahky.livejournal.com]

You and me both.

[liamstliam.livejournal.com]

Well, the agenda says there's another restaurant coming in there.

Doesn't a landlord have the right to do his business?

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

Sure. And the community has a right to complain if they don't like it.

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Someday Cafe by Jim's Big Ego (http://bigego.com) on more songs about me (http://www.bigego.com/index.php?page=cds&display=349)

You know, I used to go down to the Someday Cafe
That hip little spot down the road
But then I turned around and saw everyone was doing it so
I went and had my coffee alone
But I don't wanna sulk because that's so alternative
And alternative is so mainstream, you know?
Everybody's giving up, everybody's giving up
The evil bean
So I can't drink my coffee and I can't give it up
And decaf is so mundane, you know?
I just thought about blowin' my brains out
But that's so Kobian
You know everybody's trying not to be just like everybody.
Everybody.
Everybody's trying not to be just like everybody.
Everybody's trying not to be just like everybody.
And I don't want to be like that.

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

This news hurts. Bad. The laid back vibe of the Someday made it my favorite hangout in the Square.

[push-stars.livejournal.com]

The community has a right to pass an ordinance that gives you a garunteed amount of time at a table so that you can not be kicked out. You can even pass an ordinance that says "yes", you can order an appatizer in place of an entree if you like. While you might be able to understand those kinds of rules in restauruants you can also decide what kind of community you want here, get involved and make it happen.

Stop the bad side of gentrification while you have the chance.

Maybe these guys can move to Union Square. We have one of those rip-off check cashing rent-a-center like places that I think should go. We work hard to provide affordable housing and then we let places like this rip off the savings we provided for these poor folks.

[ron_newman]

Union Square has the Sherman Cafe, which I urge you to patronize so it stays open in that neighborhood.

[sarah-raz.livejournal.com]

I haven't really frequented the Someday in years - it seemed to have gone downhill in recent years - but I have such fond memories. Sad.

[ron_newman]

I just talked to Ian Judge, manager of the Somerville Theatre. He asked me to pass on the following statement:

"The fact is that the Someday chose not to renew their lease and so another tenant was found, and an effort was made to find a local independent business, which we did. A lease has already been signed with Mr. Crepe, so there is no chance of a change in this situation.

Chatham and Richard are not 'making' them leave. The Someday had three months to renew their lease and they failed to do so. It is not an eviction."

[prog.livejournal.com]

You may want to update your original post if you've collected new info that contradicts (or significantly refines) what you heard at first...

[magpie-leah.livejournal.com]

One reason it's sad to see Someday go is that Diesel gets totally filled up on weekends and some weeknights to the point where there are no seats left. It was nice to have another option. I suppose there's still Au Bon Pain, Dunkin Donuts, and that little Italian bakery on Highland. Any others? Hopefully Mr. Crepe will be OK with people lingering over coffee and crepes for a while.

[ron_newman]

it's a couple blocks from Davis, but I recommend the Grand Prix Café on Mass. Ave., between Day and Dover streets. Here's a recent article about them, from the Alewife newspaper in North Cambridge.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Well this fucking blow goats. I totally refuse to go back to Diesel after the attitude I got when I wanted to put up a poster for a Katrina benefit there. Fuck it, I'll go to Starbucks.

[karmaportrait.livejournal.com]

wal-mart of coffee < local business

[mistergoat.livejournal.com]

Manager of the Somerville Theatre? Is this the same guy who refused to negotiate with his projectionists when they went on strike for a living wage in 2003, going so batshit that he diden't want Jobs with Justice (http://www.massjwj.net) to table at a Michael Franti concert later in the year? If it's not the same guy, never mind, but if it is, I'm not surprised that he would stick up for the landlord. And I'd take anything he said with much salt.

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

I think it's very unlikely that the manager of the Somerville Theatre is the same person who owns the building.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

How many times a month I go to a coffee shop: 0
How many times a week I used to go to Mr. Crepe: 2

How excited I am about Mr. Crepe coming back to Davis? !!!!!!!!!!

I hate to think of the Someday closing, but I absolutely never went there. And, I miss Mr. Crepe so damn much.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

Yup. I agree. I love having the Someday in the Sq. It added to the Davis vibe and will be sorely missed. (I did notice over the years that it was getting a bit run down with lot of vagrants hanging around.)
Mr Crepe is awesome however. Let's hope it's as cool as it was before.
If only The Someday or another independent coffee store would open and replace some of those bizarre old stores on Highland.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Oh s--

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Mr Crepe! WIN!
(I never cared much about Someday, other than as a Jim Infantino reference. I totally miss Mr. Crepe.)

[ron_newman]

This morning, the sign at the counter was gone, but the staff still confirmed to me that the story was correct. They claimed that the landlord did not want to renew the lease because the cafe was "not compatible" with the building's other tenants. I'm sure Ian Judge would dispute this. It's hard for me to see how a coffee shop could be incompatible with a movie theatre and concert hall.

[cold-cold-water.livejournal.com]

i wrote gus & this is what he said:

Dear Laura,

Thanks for the note. I don't want to close The Someday. There's a
lot of confusion right now and I'm spending as much time calming people
down as anything else.

Our lease is up in September but we were required to notify the
landlord back in February. For small tenants like the SD the landlord
calls up and says "what do you want to do?" Our landlord waited for us
to miss the deadline and then waited some more. On Friday he gave us
65 days or so to leave. I think he's sick of the SD and sees an
opportunity to install a better-paying tenant. The building across the
street from the SD has been emptied. A CVS and a Boston Sports Club
are moving in.

I missed the deadline. He is within the letter of the law and the
contract but is being ingenuous about what he is doing. He could have
asked me in a phone call, a letter, an email, or even personally. He's
sick of the SD loud music, the recent influx of halfway house residents
and other things.

I think there are a number of things that might happen including a
change of mind on his part but it will not be accomplished by people
screaming at him, tying up his office telephones or acting in
obnoxious ways. I'm not sure what to do. A petition? Email? I'm
being chased around by journalists who are understandably interested.

More soon.

Gus

[ron_newman]

I got the same reply from him. (But I didn't post it here because I wasn't sure he wanted that.)

[out-2-lunch.livejournal.com]

Huge bummer. It's my favorite place to hang out and get some dessert in Davis Square. Comfortable and never as crowded as Diesel.

I'm sad to hear that it's going :-(

[ron_newman]

And here is the reply that I sent to Gus:

Thanks for your reply. The Someday Cafe is the subject of a lot of discussion at LiveJournal:

http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/562783.html
http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/562531.html

I encourage you to join these discussions.

>I think there are a number of things that might happen including a
>change of mind on his part

My impression is that he has already agreed to lease your space to Mr. Crepe, which is also a beloved business in Davis Square (though it has been absent for a year or two). If he backs out of that in order to let you stay, now he has upset a whole new group of people.

The resolution I hope to see is for you to relocate in Davis Square, but I don't know anything about your business model or how well you have been doing at the Someday.

[kalessin.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

If only Gus and Mr. Crepe could join forces and serve good coffee and pastry, ice cream and crepes all together...

Does anyone reading this other than me remember Davis Square before the Red Line station opened in 1984, when it was much skankier, and there were very few reasons for non-townies to go there (there was a used record store and the Somerville Theatre, if it had a flick you couldn't find anywhere else).

[eclecticavatar.livejournal.com]

Latest word as of this morning:

"Apparently things are further along than I thought. It seems that Mr. Crepe may return to our space. There is a Davis Square task force meeting tonight at
7PM 167 Holland St.
Chris Daveta moderates
840PM Mr. Crepe's return to Davis Square."

[ron_newman]

Yep, that's what started all this discussion, when the city sent out the agenda for tonight's meeting, and "Mr. Crepe coming to Someday Café site" was listed on that agenda.

[ayelle.livejournal.com]

I very much like all the cafes in Davis Square (except maybe the DD, but I don't even have anything against it since I don't think it competes in the same way as the others; I just have no need to go there). They each have something different to offer, as many people have already said here -- Diesel has the most seating (but is the most crowded), Someday almost always has somewhere to sit (but it's not always real comfortable), Starbucks has outdoor seating. I like Someday's hot mochas better than Diesel's, but Diesel's iced mochas the best. Diesel for real food, JP Licks for ice cream and espresso frappes, Someday for alternate Toscanini's flavors -- and closeness to the T!

I'm quite sorry that it doesn't seem like they can all survive, for whatever reasons (exhaustively discussed elsewhere on this thread). I hope Someday chooses to reopen somewhere, someday (heh heh)... perhaps addressing some of the problems others have mentioned... but if it doesn't, I hope another coffee shop comes in.

But if something has to replace Someday, I'm glad it's Mr. Crepe.

Someday Cafe

[gus-rancatore.livejournal.com]

It was an ordeal to register for this thing.

I own The Someday and right off the bat I would tell people not to call Richard at Chatham Light. Annoying him by tying up his phone is counterproductive. There is a groundswell of support for The Someday. We would like to stay and hope to reach an accomdation with Richard.

Our lease required us to notify Richard in February of our intention to renew the lease. In all my years of business this has been accomplished by a landlord calling up and asking if you want to renew. Richard held to the letter of the law. I think he's being disingenous when he says he hadn't heard from us and didn't know what to do. Then he waited until June 21 to tell us that we have to leave by September 1.

Richard and his family have been patient and helpful with The Someday in the past. We want to stay and that requires an agreement between his company and The Someday. There's a meeting in Somerville tonight at 167 Holland Street, starting at 7PM. Its a meeting of the Davis Square Task Force.

Many news organizations are interested in this story including The Somerville Journal and The Boston Globe and the Weekly Dig and NPR.

I'm hoping for a happy resolution and being polite about achieving that.