Cafemantic is Expanding! Please read full article released by Cafemantic below:
Senate President Donald E. Williams Jr., (D-Brooklyn, Windham) reported Thursday that another Quiet Corner business has been selected to take part in the State’s successful Small Business Express Program. Willimantic coffee house, Cafémantic has been awarded a $90,000 loan and $10,000 as a result of the bipartisan Jobs Bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Dannel P. Malloy.
Over the next few months the staff will prepare for some big changes. With assistance of the program Cafemantic will upgrade the kitchen and dining areas to accommodate a full service dinner menu with beer and wine. Renovations to the dining areas and kitchen will take place late at night after closing. An experienced chef has been brought in to develop the menu and several new employees will be hired. It is Gutt’s plan to create up to three full-time, positions and five part-time within the next year- growing the staff to over twenty.
In addition to the dinner concept, another expansion will also begin. According to Gutt, Cafémantic will add on another 1,200 square feet to use as an event room. The café will be renovating a vacant part of the building into a space where individuals, businesses and community organizations can host their own events.
The new event room, which will be able to accommodate up to fifty guests, will feature views of the Willimantic River, functional railroad tracks and the rolling hills of neighboring Lebanon. The event room located two stories up from the street level will also feature a folding glass wall that can be opened in the warmer months. “Since we could not put a patio that high up, this is the next best thing. If we couldn’t go outside, we are going to bring it in” says Gutt.
In addition to event rentals, the room will also be used for Gutt and his company to produce their own events such as guest chef dinners, tastings and live music.
Gutt says that the addition of a dinner menu will happen first in the next two months and the event room renovation will happen through December to be ready in early 2013. According to Gutt, “Being opening later in the evening with a dinner menu is something that we always knew we would grow into. It was just was a matter of timing. We knew that when the opportunity arose to help us expand our vision we would be ready.”