On Friday, June 18, New Deal Café Board President Michael Hartman and Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket Board President Bill Jones finalized an exciting collaboration between the two longtime community cooperatives. In the agreement, the Café has contracted with the Co-op Supermarket to manage the Café’s food and beverage operations for a two-year period, with the option to extend the contract after that time.
“I trust that the New Deal Café members will see this collaboration as an opportunity to find firm footing and sustainability in maintaining our ability to continue our award-winning tradition of great music, poetry and arts programming,” said Hartman. “The New Deal Café will always be enjoyed as Greenbelt’s living room and that has not, and will not, ever change.”
The agreement names Co-op Supermarket General Manager Dan Gillotte as manager of the Café’s food and beverage operations. Gillotte envisions serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week at the Café, with a variety of enticing sit-down and “grab-and-go” menu items designed to appeal to a wide range of dietary needs and budgets.
“The Co-op looks forward to serving coffee drinks, smoothies, bagels and baked goods during the day and a great selection of crowd-pleasing hot entrees and sides at night along with late night noshes like tater tots, onion rings, potato wedges and more!” says Gillotte. He plans to “soft open” the Café in July, with a solid but limited menu expanding from there. “It normally takes much longer for a business to go from contract negotiations to opening day but we know how excited everyone is to get back to the fun at New Deal so we’re running as fast as we can to make that a reality!”
“I knew when we hired Dan Gillotte as our Co-op general manager that he would positively lead our Co-op grocery to great success,” said Jones. “I’m thrilled to see that he will be doing the same for our beloved New Deal Café.”
Greenbelt Co-op Supermarket will host an open interview session on Saturday, June 26 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Café. “We’re looking forward to meeting many friendly, energetic and experienced folks who want to make and serve great food and beverages to their neighbors in historic Roosevelt Center,” said Gillotte. Any interested candidates should arrive planning to fill out an application and be interviewed on Saturday. Co-op is looking to fill several positions: counter servers, food prep, cooks, dishwashers and bartenders as well as some shift supervisor roles.
The Café’s long-time music manager, Amethyst Dwyer, will continue booking the area’s best and most enticing musical acts to perform onstage in the Café’s beautifully updated back room. Her efforts have brought the Café multiple awards, including a 2020 Washington City Paper nod as Best Place to Experience Local Music. The Café’s new arts coordinator, Shaymar Higgs, has already installed his first art display in the Café’s windows and has exciting plans for bringing in a diverse array of new talent to exhibit on the Café’s walls. And the Café will continue to host the popular and long-running monthly Reel and Meal film program, poetry readings, open mics and other arts- and community-related events.
Mark Cheater is a member of the New Deal Café’s board of directors.