There’s something about this season in town, especially when it comes to business. Now is when things shift…and expand, as is the current case with Yum Yum Café, located on Rock City Road.
Or look to new horizons, as is happening with Sweetheart and Galerie BMG on Tannery Brook Road.
Or just finally get around to the little changes one’s been putting off all year, as Joshua’s Café is up to, or Woodstock Emporium in its new space since June…and countless other business locations around town.
“We’re expanding into next door, on the inside, going from 24 to 64 seats,” said chef and Yum Yum co-owner Pierre-Luc Moeys, of the big construction job that’s swallowed recent weeks for him. “We want to be more visible from the street; we’ll be bigger than our Kingston restaurant now, which is only 56 seats.”
The Yum Yum expansion takes over space recently occupied by Xclusive Boutique, a locally-based company that’s shifting more of its business online while maintaining its original store in Uptown Kingston for now. According to Moeys, this brings his franchise up to two restaurants…and a food truck.
Sweetheart switches
“We’re moving to the country after 33 years in town,” said Lila Bacon of Sweetheart Gallery, which has been in what was a house on Tannery Brook Road since moving out of what is now Birchtree (which had been their shoe store when Birchtree started where Timbuktu is on the corner) a little over 20 years ago. “We’ve rented the gallery space to a clothing designer and homewares designer from Hudson, Ecosystem Llc, who will be in here March 15 for an April opening. They’re younger than us and have a nice edge; they seemed like a nice fit and a good addition to the town. We’ll be moving back out to my studio in Bearsville where we’ll be doing things in collaboration with Bernard and Judy of Galerie BMG.”
Norman Bacon noted how much of their business has moved online in recent years, and the present move will allow the couple to focus more on art over retail sales.
“It’s a lifestyle change,” he said. “It felt like a no-brainer…and it will be great doing things with BMG, who we’ve grown quite close to over the years.
Bernard and Judy Gerson of Galerie BMG started their business nearly a decade ago after the couple decided to continue what had been Art & Soul, which in turn took over from the WARM Store and the first iteration of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, which filled the space Howard Greenberg started his photo gallery life in…after converting a former streamside home in the 1970s.
“Things have changed in town; we don’t need to be in this building anymore,” Bernard Gerson said. “We’re looking to rent or sell; our Plan C would be to turn it back into a home…We usually close for the winter so we’ll have time to work out the details. We look forward to doing things with Lila and Norman in their studio in Bearsville…”
More changes
Elsewhere in the center of Woodstock, the folks at Joshua’s noted that they’ve been busy taking the month off to get a revived, more locavore-oriented menu in shape (along with winter sprucing up inside). Out by Upstate Films, a new wood-fired pizza restaurant, Rick’s, is being put together where Country Inn once was; a new MHVFCU Bank is going in where Violette’s once fed folks southern French cooking, and before that Christie’s held court as a popular eatery of many years running.
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