La Contessa - Somerville Journal article

[ron_newman]

Today's Somerville Journal has an article on the closing of La Contessa. The online version also has some nice photos of Annette in the shop.

She wants everyone to come in this Monday and say goodbye, though she'll be open a couple more weeks.
Edited 12:30 pm to add: Now she thinks she's staying open until the end of May.

See also:

Spatch, on Vanishing Davis Square
Earlier discussion of La Contessa
Even earlier discussion

Comments

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

It's really a shame, and the prices were incredibly cheap. So cheap, I always suspected it was really a front for something else going on behind those swinging doors that lead into the kitchen.

At any rate, while there's an overabudance of eateries in Davis, sushi will be very nice as long as it's good.

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

I'm still really confused, and the article doesn't seem to say. Is the landlord not renewing the lease or are they just not making enough business or what?

[ron_newman]

I'm also a bit confused. The article says the store is "facing rising rents", but it also says that Annette "refused to sell out to chains and other bakeries" and that she "handpicked" her successor in the space. Doesn't that mean she owns it?

[ron_newman]

Lyndell's in Ball Square?

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

I think she owns it. The article says the store is being sold, but clearly the business isn't being sold, so presumablty the store front is.

[closetalker11.livejournal.com]

Lyndell's is great. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Change

[bostonartist.livejournal.com]

Ok.. This is just a thought.

Everyone seems to agree that LC had good products and a great location, so why it closing? My thought is that they had a shrinking base of older customers who have for the most part, left the area. Although the place has some "old school" charm, the owners have done little to keep the place feeling fresh and have done little to try and reach out to the newer residents of the SQ. They have held on to the past without any innovation. Business is hard.. you have to be willing to change with the times to some degree if you want to survive.

Re: Change

[siderea]

Their hours suck. IMHO and all, but it was enormously frustrating to me that I generally only want the sort of sweets they sell after dinner. For, you know, dessert. And they closed at some ridiculous early hour in the evening.

Re: Change

[aki.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I've only been there about twice for that very reason.

Re: Change

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

That's pretty common for bakeries, though, because they start baking at oh-fuck-thirty in the morning, while most the rest of us are still soundly asleep.

Re: Change

[siderea]

Yeah, it's a real bloody shame there aren't any late-open cafes in the area through whom they might have profitably wholesaled. *coff*