Village Café Slated to Close

Ridgewood native Mike Davis has run the Village Café for the past three years, but now he says he is out of time and money. He plans to close Dec. 24.

"It's not the clientele, it is the cost of being in Ridgewood,"  he said, as customers stream in the door. Davis knows nearly all of them by name.

Alice Kerwin, a regular, was clearly unhappy about the café closing. When Davis explained that someone else may eventually take it over, she said, "It won't be the same without you here. Amy and I were in tears when we found out yesterday."

Another customer stopped to chat with Davis about her car, which had been hit and damaged by another driver. Davis, an energetic and gregarious man, prides himself on knowing a lot about his customers.

His family owns ToolTown in Paramus, and he said he learned a lot from his father when he was a young man, including that a first impression in a retail store is usually the last impression. But he said he wanted no part of the family business after his father died, so he moved on, eventually taking over the Ridgewood Coffee Company.

It had opened on East Ridgewood Avenue in 1996, went up for sale in 1998, and Davis bought it, running it until 2003 when his wife, Joan, became crippled by back problems. 

"I got an offer I could not refuse, five times what I paid for it," Davis said.

Later, after his wife had surgery, Davis bought the Village Café, a pretty place that sold sandwiches and fruit but had few customers. Davis turned it into a coffee spot and, to draw customers, put a table on the sidewalk that pedestrians would have to walk around.

"They walked around and came in,"  Davis said. But soon after he opened his doors, Joan needed more surgery, and daughter Blair stepped in, at 19, to run the show.

Today, his wife is doing fine, and he and Blair run the shop together. But, he said, the foot traffic is off on Broad Street.

"I've seen the rise and fall of 18 businesses in just a two-block area," Davis said.

And his efforts to sell the business have not been successful, not at $60,000 and not at $30,000 when he cut the price in half.

"I'm not declaring bankruptcy," Davis said. "I'm just closing my door."

Part of his exit strategy to make sure all of his customers with coffee cards, get their free coffees. If you buy 10 cups of coffee at the Village Café you get the next one free. 

"I'll be giving them a free cup no matter how many holes are punched out on the card," he said.

Customers who regularly bought coffee from him to use at home under his "buy 10 one-pound bags and get one free system" are being advised to stock up. The food is another matter. Davis said he is having a hard time giving it away even though he knows many people are in need.  

He said he serves 200 to 250 people on their way to work every morning and sometimes gives free meals to people he knows can no longer afford to pay, because they have lost their jobs in the city. 

But now all Davis' regulars will have to find a new home. And Ridgewood has lost Mike Davis, at least for now. "I'm part of the dynamic, and that dynamic will change when I leave." His daughter Blair will head off to college, and Davis is not too sure what he will do.

"I'm one of those people that if you throw me off a cliff, I'll figure out what to grab on the way down," he said. "But I'll be back in Ridgewood. It's a great town."