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Couple starts café to give back to community

Doug Flanagan/Post-Register
Feb. 25, 2010

From left to right, Megan Couture, David Weber, Harriet Weber and Ann Phelps hope their new café, The Grainery, will be a hit in Quincy.

A few months ago, David and Harriet Weber were discussing possibilities of what to do with a certain amount of money they had set aside for retirement. Ideas that were kicked around included building a cabin somewhere, investing in a timeshare or going on a luxurious vacation.

They decided to not do any of that. Both Harriet and David felt very strongly that they owed the community of Quincy a debt of gratitude to show how much they appreciated the support their son, Tim, received after he underwent surgery last year to help reverse semi-paralysis in his left arm.

Harriet and David looked around and thought to themselves that Quincy, while a great place to live, currently doesn’t have a place for someone to go to sit down in a comfortable, oversized chair or sofa, enjoy a quality cup of coffee or tea, indulge in skillfully crafted artisan bread sandwiches, read a book, chat with friends or surf the Internet in a relaxed environment.

That’s how the idea of The Grainery was born.

“We said, ‘What better way to show the community our appreciation than sharing something like this with them?’ ” Harriet said. “Quincy needed something like this, a sit-down place with a coffee-shop feel.”

The Grainery will open March 1 in its location at 101 E St. SE (the old Radio Shack building) as a hybrid bakery-cafe-coffee and tea shop. It will be open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Menu items will include the café’s own fresh-baked breads, many made with local grains; pastries and dessert items; made-to-order panini sandwiches, soups and more. Beverages will include coffee and espresso beverages, whole leaf teas, American and Mexican hot chocolates, fruit smoothies, shakes, handmade Italian sodas and soft drinks. There will also be an assortment of retail items for sale, including bags of coffee, tea, coffee and tea ware, gift items and more.

One of the unique elements that the Webers and head chef Ann Phelps hope will draw people in is the store’s exclusive use of fresh, local products.

“That’s a vision that Ann and I share,” Harriet said. “We’re going to provide food that’s made from scratch with local and regional ingredients. Everything will be made here. At a lot of other places, the food is pre-made. Here, nothing will be pre-made.”

Phelps is a big believer of using fresh, local foodstuffs. She has catering experience and has run her own business, Thyme-ing is Everything. She knows good food when she sees it.

“I use local products and try to cook clean with no preservatives,” Phelps said on a recent afternoon as she stood in The Grainery’s kitchen, stirring a pan of carmelized onion dip to be used as a sandwich spread.

“I was born and raised here, and when I moved away, the fresh, local food wasn’t available like it is here. It’s amazing what can be grown here. You can grow just about anything. I have a passion and appreciation for it. I love knowing where my wheat comes from, my onions.”

Phelps had worked previously with Harriet on several projects and jumped at the chance to be involved.

“There’s rarely any quiet moments in life anymore,” Phelps said. “Food is a way to connect. I like to serve intentful food.”

With Phelps on board, the Webers still needed a person with coffee brewing experience, preferably somebody local. When a friend told Harriet that Megan Couture, a Quincy native, was back in town, looking to possibly start a coffee shop of her own, Harriet immediately called Couture and recruited her.

It didn’t take much to convince Couture, who got her first coffee-shop job when she was 15, that The Grainery was going to be a place she wanted to be.

“You can’t find anybody better to work with,” Couture said. “Harriet and David are absolutely amazing. Plus, I have a lot of freedom here. I can pick my own products.”

The local experience will extend to the drink counter as well.

The café will serve Early Bird coffee by a Woodinville-based microroaster that is owned by Kate (Allen) LaPoint, a former Quincy resident and 1990 QHS graduate. Her company, Sound Provisions, is a gourmet distributor specializing in products for independent coffee shops.

“It’s high quality,” Couture said. “(LaPoint) has been in the coffee industry for several years and pays attention to the product she puts out. It’s a nice post-roast blend. Our theme here is quality products, so nothing extra will be added to the drinks. For example, the smoothies will be made from all natural flavorings, no processed or refined sugars or anything like that.”

The process of renovating the building began in December, and there’s still a fair amount of work to do before the grand opening, but already one can envision how the store will be laid out.

Harriet explained that by providing a place to sit down, slow down and enjoy handmade foods and beverages with family and friends, the café will hopefully help bring people in the community closer together. The environment will include books, games, farm-themed puzzles and a chalkboard for kids, a fireplace, couches and chairs and a large table to accommodate meetings. There will also be a “quick service” door where customers on the go can pre-order boxed lunches, pick up, pay and run.

There’s already a significant buzz around town about the place, and if The Grainery’s Facebook page is any indication — it had 156 fans as of last Thursday, a good two weeks before opening — the store will be an immediate hit.

That’s what the Webers, Phelps and Couture are hoping for, anyway.

“We’ve had some very encouraging comments,” Harriet said. “That’s helped because this process has been stressful.”

One question that does come up is how Harriet will have the necessary time to devote to such a project considering all of her other endeavors, such as her work at the Reiman-Simmons House, Quincy Valley School and her family business, Wheat Snax.

“I’ve had people tell me that I’m crazy (for taking something else on),” Harriet said. “I started making connections (with Ann and Megan), and the planets just started to align. This was the right time.”