New Deal Cafe

The New Deal Cafe is a restaurant, music venue and community coffee house in the historic Roosevelt Center of Greenbelt, Maryland. It is a rare example of a restaurant operated as a consumers' cooperative,[4] as it is owned by over 200 member patrons.[5]

New Deal Cafe
Consumers' cooperative
Founded1995 (1995)
Headquarters
Greenbelt, Maryland
,
United States
Key people

Executive Chefs

  • Michael and Leah Moon

Bar Manager and Music Coordinator

  • Amethyst Dwyer

Front of House Manager

  • Heather Brooks

Board of Directors

  • Tom LeaMond (President)[1]
  • Mark Cheater (Secretary)
  • Dorian Winterfeld (Treasurer)
  • Michael Hartman
  • Diana McFadden

Audit Committee[2]

  • Raven Eyes Cagle
  • Naomi Lundberg Littlefield
  • Mike Stark[3]

Friends of New Deal Café Arts (FONDCA)
Board of Directors

  • Meg Haney, President
  • Chris Logan, Treasurer
  • Michael Smallwood, member
  • Julie Whitlock Winters, member
  • Dorian Winterfeld (Liaison to New Deal Cafe Board)
ProductsRestaurant, coffee house and music venue
Websitenewdealcafe.com

The cafe, which has a small beer/wine bar in the back room, features nightly and some daytime performances by regional musicians,[6] and sponsors several outdoor music festivals each year, including the Crazy Quilt Festival and the Greenbelt Blues Festival. The cafe walls are decorated with art by local artists, which is changed bi-monthly. The arts and entertainment activities are supported by the Friends of New Deal Café Arts (FONDCA),[7] a separate tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. The New Deal Cafe won WTOP's Top-10 2012 best music venue in the DC region.[8]

The cafe's menu offers plant-based Italian-American cuisine provided by Michael and Leah Moon, who also run DC Vegan Catering. There is beer on tap and a selection of wines and bottled beer, all of which are vegan.

The cafe is a commonly referred to by customers as "Greenbelt's community living room" or "third place", part of the third place movement.

Its name comes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, which was responsible for the cafe's home in Roosevelt Center, and the founding of Greenbelt.[9]

History

The New Deal Cafe was founded by a group of Greenbelt residents in 1995.[10] In November 2004, over 600 people attended an open house to support the project.[11] From 1995 to 2000, the cafe operated as a part-time coffeehouse in the Greenbelt Community Center. In April 2000, the cafe obtained a lease and opened its current full-time retail space, which was doubled its size in 2005 with expansion into an adjacent space.[12] For several years, it struggled without a kitchen on the premises, and its debt increased.[13][14] However, in June 2008, the cafe built a kitchen as part of a four-month renovation using volunteer and professional contract labor,[15] and contracted the restaurant operations with chef Karim Kmaiha and his wife, Maria Almeida, to operate the restaurant.[16][17]

On November 30, 2016, the cafe ended the restaurant operations contract with Chef Kmaiha. In the summer of 2018, the cafe contracted with Michael and Leah Moon to manage the restaurant operations.

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References
  1. "Board Meeting Minutes: April 25, 2011 (re-elected to Board May 20, 2012, and May 4, 2014)" (PDF). New Deal Cafe. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
  2. "Annual Meeting Minutes (elected to Audit Committee May 19, 2013)" (PDF). New Deal Cafe. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
  3. "Annual Meeting Minutes (elected to Audit Committee May 4, 2014)" (PDF). New Deal Cafe. Retrieved 2013-08-07.
  4. Knepper, Cathy D. (2001), Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the New Deal, Baltimore, Maryland: JHU Press, p. 218, ISBN 0-8018-6490-9, archived from the original on 2008-05-17, retrieved 2008-07-07
  5. "New Deal Cafe Members Area". New Deal Cafe. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  6. Halpern, Sue (May–June 2002), "New Deal City", Mother Jones, retrieved 2007-07-07
  7. Friends of New Deal Café Arts (FONDCA)
  8. Basch, Michelle, New Deal Cafe wins WTOP's Top 10 for best music venue, archived from the original on 25 July 2012, retrieved 7 March 2013
  9. Riley, Denise (2000-08-17), "GOOD EATS: The New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt", The Washington Post
  10. Holmes, Tamara E. (2003-11-27), "New Deal Cafe: a community affair", Maryland Gazette
  11. "A Short History of the New Deal Cafe". Retrieved August 11, 2010.
  12. "New Deal Cafe Business Plan". New Deal Cafe. October 10, 2007. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  13. Ngbea, Marcus (2007-11-01), "New Deal Café makes cuts to stay open", Maryland Gazette
  14. Hopkinson, Natalie (2001-06-14), "Co-op Cafe Is Struggling to Survive", The Washington Post, archived from the original on 2012-10-20
  15. McGill, Natalie (2008-04-10). "Renovations bring hope for new start at Greenbelt cafe". Maryland Gazette. Retrieved 2010-08-11.
  16. Tousignant, Kristi (2008-06-19), "New Deal Café hires culinary expert", Maryland Gazette
  17. Woods, Bay (2008-06-26), "The New Chef, Karim Kmaiha, Is the New Deal's New Deal" (PDF), Greenbelt News Review, pp. 1, 10

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