Village & Venue is open for business this week
Village & Venue, a café featuring fresh fruit smoothies, acai bowls and more held a soft opening on Monday, November 20, welcoming customers to the store in anticipation of their ribbon cutting on Saturday, November 25. The new café is located in the former Keir Building at 27 South Walnut Street, Suite 104, in Milford.
“I am so excited to get the café open to the public,” Taylor Rettano, owner of the new café, said. “It has been a long road, but now that I am open, I feel like I can breathe a little better.”
Not having a construction background, Rettano says she was unprepared for the time it would take to not only separate her location from three others in the historic building, but also how many obstacles would crop up when renovating an older building. She praised her landlords, Zack and Marissa King for guiding her through the process and helping to keep her calm when things were delayed. Permitting and inspections also caused unexpected delays, but now she is ready to provide customers with fresh, wholesome food.
Customers can enjoy window seating as they enjoy freshly made acai bowls, smoothies and waffles
“I am looking forward to customers coming in to give us feedback,” Rettano said. “Right now, we are offering baked goods, some that are sourced from other bakeries in the area, along with fresh baked waffles, acai bowls, real fruit smoothies, paninis and freshly made soups. Our menu is flexible so we can add things as customers request them. We do have cold and hot brewed coffee, but we did not want to be a coffee shop, so we didn’t do anything fancy as far as coffee.”
In addition to the café, Rettano has an area in the back of the café that can be rented for parties and celebrations. The room will eventually have a large garage-style door that will open onto a patio with turf so the venue will be both indoor and outdoor.
“Right now, the patio is nothing but dirt, but they plan to bring in sand and soil before putting turf down for the patio,” Rettano said. “We think this will be a unique rental venue that is suitable for birthday parties and other events. Baby showers, it is a great spot to welcome a new baby into the world and we may even be able to handle small weddings. Rentals of the space are already coming in so we think it will be a great addition for Milford.”
Currently, the café will be open only for breakfast and lunch.
Baked goods, some sourced from other local bakeries
“Right now, we have winter hours that are just for breakfast and lunch,” Rettano said. “I am hoping to add evening hours with a yogurt bar, like a make your own sundae type thing designed for kids. That would be for evening hours in the summer months.”
A ribbon cutting is planned for Village & Venue on Saturday, November 25 at 1 PM during Small Business Saturday. This week, the café will be open from 9 AM to 3 PM through Wednesday. They will reopen on Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM. After this weekend, the café will be open from 8 AM util 3 PM until spring.
Share this Post