New Cafe Owner: Restaurant Will be 'For the Neighbors'

For those eager to learn more about the new cafe that is currently planned to take the place of the long-standing building on High Street, one things' for sure, it will be a one-of-its-kind establishment in Westwood. 

Property owner Fataneh Dowlatshahi recently spoke with Westwood Patch, explaining her vision in Bi Bi's Cafe, and what she hopes it will do for the town.

"I'm not targeting truck drivers or all the people passing by," she said. "I'm targeting my neighbors. It's going to be a very small cafe. I'm going to provide everything organic. It's for the people in this community to come, sit down, have sandwiches, coffee."

The cafe will offer baked goods, homemade jams and butters, different types of pastries, village breads, homemade soups, and, of course, coffee.

"I will have some very, very good coffee," Dowlatshahi said. "I will serve Italian coffees, different cappuccinos, espressos. It's not only about the coffee, the baked goods I'm going to provide, it's going to be wonderful. The fresh bread I'm going to make every day for people, it's going to be the image of that cafe."

While it will be her first cafe, Dowlatshahi, who has run a day care business for more than 20 years, has spent a fair share of her life in the kitchen. 

"My uncle has lived in Germany since he was 12 years old," she said. "Every summer, I went to Germany and worked in his bakery, and I've known how to bake and cook all my life."

While she'll be the owner of the cafe and one of the bakers, Dowlatshahi won't be the only one working the oven.

"I have a baker who's going to make bread, and I'm going to give him recipes," she said. "My mother is going to be the soup maker. She's going to make wonderful soups from scratch."

What's more, everything the new cafe will offer will be organic. 

"We believe in organic," she said. "This is how we grew up, with organic stuff," she said. "It's the best food you can put in your body to stay healthy."

Dowlatshahi said she hopes to have the business ready to open by Thanksgiving. She had anticipated an earlier opening, she said, but is still in the process of obtaining proper permits and working with the current owners of Anne's Lunch. The Westwood Board of Health just recent signed off on the project, she said.  

"My plan was to start this and finish it by the end of September and start," she said. "The way things are going, the construction takes a good eight to 10 weeks, over two months, and then after that I have to get my equipment."