As January came to a close, the owners of Acadia Café were poised to open the doors of their new location in the old New Riverside Café spot, 329 Cedar Ave. (The cafe opened for evening hours on Saturday, Feb. 16, said Tim Mungavan, executive director of the West Bank Community Development Corporation, which owns the building and was integral in bringing the business to Cedar-Riverside.)

Acadia relocated from the corner of Franklin and Nicollet Avenues, where it had been a fixture for more than a decade.

Ted Lowell, who has owned the café with his wife Juliana Bryarly and their business partner Jeff Radnich for six years, attributed the move to such difficulties as rising rent, inadequate kitchen space and other building issues.

While Acadia joins a crowded West Bank café scene — three other businesses within a half block serve coffee — Lowell said he’s not focusing on espresso and coffee, but more of a pub, tavern and music venue. “We’ll have music, good beer, good food and supplement that with coffee,” said Lowell, taking his own coffee break inside Bruck’s Espresso Bar, 1810 Riverside, just around the corner from the new Acadia.

Bruck Nerayo, owner of the 10-year-old café, isn’t worried about competition, either. He, Hard Times Café, and Mapps Coffee and Tea all have their own customer niches, he said, and he is glad to see what he hopes will be a sustainable business in the Riverside Café spot.

“They’ve been having a bad time there,” said Nerayo of the several restaurants that have been in and out of the space in recent years. He said he thinks Acadia will add to the draw from the university that already exists from Mapps, for instance.

Lowell said he’s looking forward to the larger space, leased from the West Bank Community Development Corporation. A full kitchen will enable them to introduce a larger menu and expanded business hours. There is also the potential for outdoor seating, he said. The café will have a full liquor license and 28 beers on tap.

The menu will feature Acadia standbys with some new additions, such as a Cajun rice plate with red beans, to pay homage to the eats at the former New Riverside Café.
“We want a place where people feel just as comfortable eating breakfast as drinking beer and listening to music,” said Lowell of the new Acadia.

For more information, go to www.acadiacafe.com or call
874-8702.

last revised: February 20, 2008

• Login or register to post comments