Kickstand Cafe's Story: Not Just An Arlington Coffee Shop

ARLINGTON, MA — It's not a biker bar, per se. But Kickstand Cafe is a cafe, a coffee shop and a pit stop for those riding the Minuteman trail. It's also increasingly becoming a community gathering place for writers.

"We do get confused from time to time as a biker bar. Apparently 'kickstand' is commonly used in relations to motorcycle types," said co-owner Emily Shea with an easy smile as an espresso machine whorls in the background, music plays overhead and nearly every seat in the restaurant filled with tables is taken on a recent Tuesday morning. There are no motorcycles parked outside today, but there is a Verizon worker who comes in wearing work boots and plops himself at a table to read a book on his break.

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How Kickstand began

Kickstand Cafe is sneaking up on its fourth anniversary tucked next to the Minuteman Bikeway at the corner of Swan Place and Mass Ave. It's a collaboration between Shea and co-owner Mark Ostow, of Zing Cafe in the Porter Square Bookstore and -as many remember very well, Zing Pizza, which he's since closed.

Shea, a lawyer-turned-yogi happened into a friendship with Ostow while teaching yoga near Zing Cafe. And when he started talking about ways to reopen the popular Zing Pizza, Shea was struck with nostalgia for the family owned pizzeria she grew up with and volunteered to help. While the pizzeria revival didn't work out, Shea started helping at Zing Cafe every once in a while and loved the bustle of it. Perhaps a happy medium between litigation and yoga.

"A friend came in and later told me when she saw me there it was the happiest she'd ever seen me," recalls Shea. The seed was planted and when the space where Jam'n Java went on the market the Arlington resident and Ostow who lives in Cambridge jumped at the chance.

"It was the perfect location. And it's a community where people really needed something like this. Increasingly people really need community," she said.

In addition to cafe hours, there's an open mic monthly, four times a year there are author salon events, and Fugitive Productions of Acton just started hosting story telling events a la Moth Radio here during the summer.

The regulars

It's that community vibe that keeps the regulars coming back.

Anjali Mitter Duva a local author comes often and sits at the communal table as she writes. She works better out of the house and finished her first book from cafes around Cambridge when she lived there. When she moved here she was looking for something similar.

"I came to Jam'n Java once or twice but it was just meh," she said.

Then when Kickstand opened she fell in love with the comfortable vibe, the wooden tables and exposed brick columns.

"It felt more homey," she said. "I started coming here and very quickly came to realize how many interesting folks were gravitating here; writers, activists, professors."

It lead to interesting conversations and then a plan to bring an author salon series to the cafe every three months. Duva noticed that the cafe held live music on Fridays and an open mic once a month.

(The board of selectmen had three requests when Shea came before them before the cafe opened, she told Patch: That the hanging lights not hit the heads of tall people, that they have the fresh rolls famous at Zing Cafe and that they continue the monthly open mic nights that Jam'n Java started).

And, frustrated that most literary events in the Boston area were in Boston or Cambridge and not that easy to get to, wondered why not host something at the cafe. The idea was hatched at the communal table with her other Kickstand friends. She brought it to Shea who was enthusiastic about it and in January 2015 with her team of the director of Robbin's Library the Bookrack, the Grub Street Writers and a number of other local writers and authors on board they held their first salon.

Each event highlights three local published writers who speak or read for about 15 minutes each on a given topic or theme and are requested to "tantalize the senses" along with their presentation - be it audio, video, smell or food. And then there's time for a collective Q&A for those attending.

"That turned out to be a lot of fun," said Duva. And popular. Some 60 people showed up to the first one she said. The last one featured Boston restaurateur Barbara Lynch and food columnist Ted Weesner and was packed to the brim, according to Shea.

"Emily and Mark are such proprietors of community gathering and community events. They're very generous," said Duva.

And there's a reason behind that says Shea.

"We wanted to make a place that we would want to hang out that would have an honest good feel," she said. They carry whole foods and fair trade coffee and she said they care about responding to what customers want, but they're also true to the cozy, home vibe they started out in mind with. "People actually talk to each other here," she said, adding that's what she wanted.

Oh, there's food, too

The cafe carries everything from a roasted chicken sandwich they roast themselves to vegetarian and vegan fare. Shea's favorite item on the menu currently is the new vegan sandwich, which is made with a garlic olive oil spread on Iggy's bread and with fennel and squash and zucchini for $6.95.

The food is mostly based on recipes Shea's made at home for the past few years, she says. Right now the bread comes from Iggy's and the baked goods are from the Danish Pastry Shop, though she's exploring the possibility of making some of that.

Names

Oh and where did the name come from?

"Naming a biz is probably just as hard as if not harder than naming a baby," said Shea. She and Ostow wanted to name it a "Bicycle Thief Cafe," after a movie of the same name, but both her children and Ostow's children strongly encouraged them to consider other options.

It took a while but they landed on Kickstand. And walking into the cafe from the parking lot (yes it has a parking lot) out front you can't help notice a pile of bikes on the bike racks out front and watch bikers zing onto the Minuteman Bikeway and think it's appropriate.

Hours: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Next:

Open Mic: August 4

Story Slam: August 24

Author Salon: October 5

594 Mass Ave in Arlington.

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Photos by Jenna Fisher/Patch