Someday Cafe closing?

[statler]

I've never been, but this still sounds like bad news.

Originally Posted by Weekly Dig

SAVE THE SOMEDAY
A longtime cultural institution is on the ropes
JOE KEOHANE

In high school, I spent an inordinate amount of time in The Someday Caf? in Davis Square. This was in the mid-?90s, right before the big blah of gentrification really hit?Somerville was still being called ?Slumerville? by some, and, a little hopefully, ?The Paris of the ?90s? by others. Davis Square was the center of the emerging Somerville scene, and The Someday Caf? was the center of that. It was a big part of my life then, and it continues to be now: a comfortable, unpretentious public space to read, drink good coffee and shoot the shit.

So you can imagine the dread I felt when this reader email came in last week: ?I walked into The Someday Caf? an hour ago, and found a small pot on the counter with a note taped to it. The note read ?Tip us well! We just lost our jobs! We are closing August 15.? Talking to the help, I learned that the landlords are refusing to renew the lease ??

I called Gus Rancatore, owner of the Someday and Toscanini?s, to see what was going on. Apparently, the landlord, Richard Fraiman (whose father owns the Somerville Theatre, and who Rancatore says has ?been patient and helpful in the past?), sent a notification that the lease was coming up back in February. The note got lost in the shuffle, and months passed. Then, in June, Rancatore got word that he was to vacate the space by September 1. Word is the landlord?s looking to stick a crepe restaurant in the space.

?I?m trying not to be combative,? Rancatore said, ?but he could have called us, he could have emailed. We?re hoping to work something out ? I would have liked it more if we had longer notice, but I?m trying to work with him.?

Rancatore admits that the landlord has some legitimate beefs?among them loud music and the caf??s famously ratty carpet (which is being replaced)?but that he?s willing to rectify those. More importantly, though, he?s looking to set a new direction for the place, and it sounds like just the sort of thing this town really, really needs right now. ?I have an ideal,? he says. ?I think The Someday could be like Doyle?s in JP: a funky but very friendly place that?s open to all constituencies, a place for people to be friendlier to people they don?t already know.?

Amen to that. If we lose this one, it?s going to hurt.

Link

[Ron Newman]

See http://davis_square.livejournal.com for much more on this subject.

In particular, look at all posts that are tagged "coffee houses', starting on June 26 with "Davis Square Task Force agenda for Wed 6/28", and continuing to the present day.

[vanshnookenraggen]

Oh man, I used to hang out there all the time. I can't imagine Davis Sq without it.

[TheBostonian]

"Apparently, the landlord, Richard Fraiman (whose father owns the Somerville Theatre, and who Rancatore says has ?been patient and helpful in the past?), sent a notification that the lease was coming up back in February. The note got lost in the shuffle, and months passed."

So the Someday Cafe was notified of the upcoming expiration of the lease, had a chance to renew but lost the note?

[Ron Newman]

In the meeting I went to last week, the story was more like "the landlord didn't notify the tenant that the lease was up, then sat back and waited for the tenant to renew".