A new eatery called Gemela is coming to Woodstock, filling the space left by Mud Club, and a new cafe will be at 45 Mill Hill Road, where the Early Terrible bar once was.
Craig Leonard, business partner in Silvia and Good Night, two high-end restaurants in town, sees Gemela as a breakfast and lunch spot open until around four or five o’clock.
“It’s accessible food, daytime food,” he said. “There’s some breakfast items, obviously some pastries, coffee. There will be breakfast items in the morning and sandwiches, prepared foods, soups, salads, things like that. And then some larger plates as well. The menu likely won’t be revealed until closer to opening.”
By night, the place will be a wine bar.
“Not a late one,” Leonard said, walking the property on a recent morning and surveying the activity. “I’m not planning on opening until much past ten. We’ll see how that goes. “We’re putting on a patio so people can sit outside even if it rains, which they never had. So, that’ll be a place for people to go even with inclement weather.”
The redesigned interior incorporates a kitchen with seating for about 36 on the inside and another 30 on the patio, plus more around the grounds.
“The smaller location is going to be our coffee spot and grab-and-go,” he said, pointing to the smaller building that formerly housed the Mud Club. So it will be homemade, everything we make ourselves,” Leonard explained. “I’m going to have coffee over here, countertop here, and a couple of refrigerated things here and a case down here, deli case. So all that will be filled with prepared foods and coffee. You can eat it on the grounds or for takeaway. So that’s up to you.”
The setup with two buildings was unusual, “but yeah, we think we’re going to try to make it a fun experience for people.”
Sylvia chef Lisa Choi will be creating the menu and running Gemela, Leonard said.
“There’s no specific cuisine,” Leonard said. “It’s just a bit of a melting pot. She’s a very talented chef, so she’ll be trying out new things.”
Leonard and his wife Betty moved up from the city looking to invest in the community.
“I’ve lived here 20 years,” he said. “I had businesses in the city, which I got out of before Covid, fortunately, and I was always looking to do something here. And this is where the stars took us.”
Leonard is also business partner in a 15-room hotel proposed for the former Woodstock Automotive garage next door to Gemela. If all goes according to plan, a walkway will join the two properties. Gemela will be the cafe and coffee spot for the hotel.
Gemela hopes to open in May.
“We put it together very quickly,” Leonard said. “We needed to get open for the summer, for this season. We didn’t have a lot of time. The owners of the property only came to me about six weeks ago or something.”
Concert venue proposed
Nestled behind Cumberland Farms and next to Sunflower is an old home Joel and Alicia Webber hope to transform into a concert venue and cafe at 67 Mill Hill in Woodstock.
Aware of residents’ sensitivity to loud music, Joel and Alicia Webber assured the planning board recently that there would be no outdoor performances. Special construction materials will be used to contain the sound within the walls, they said, so that it would be essentially silent outside.
The indoor capacity will be 175 to 200 seated or 250 standing. The cafe will seat about 46.
The applicants say they have made an arrangement to use the Sunflower parking lot. Conflict should be minimal because of differing business hours.
Planning board member Genie Tartell warned of possible pushback from residents at Woodstock Commons and nearby homes who are used to living in a quiet neighborhood.
It is, however, zoned commercial, with many restaurants and bars in the area.
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