Beloved Danbury Eatery Not Closing as Planned

DANBURY, CT — A downtown eatery, notable as a place where adults with disabilities were given the opportunity to acquire professional experience, will not be shuttering as originally scheduled, the News Times is reporting.

The Greenery Cafe, at 115 Main Street in Danbury, was set to close in December, a victim of budget cuts in Hartford and its own success in Brewster and Carmel, NY. The cafe's backer, non-profit Green Chimneys, planned to shutter the cafe in favor of ramping-up their own operations at its nearby Westchester campuses.

But in a storybook change of events, efforts by the state Department of Developmental Services and local supporters pushed through an eleventh-hour bid for a new provider to take over just before the end of the year. The nonprofit Easterseals of Greater Waterbury was hired to keep the cafe running.

The cafe employs about 20 people with disabilities. Many have held those jobs for many years.

Easterseals plans no changes to the cafe's hours or services.

For more, see the News Times.