‘GrandLo Cafe’ Kickstarts Crowdfunding Campaign Ahead of Winter Debut
Photo: Grand Street Settlement
The Grand Street Settlement is a couple months away from opening GrandLo Cafe at Essex Crossing Site 6. In the meantime, however, the social service institution has jumpstarted a Kickstarter campaign to assist completion of the nonprofit coffee shop concept (aka “nosh for profit”).
All of the donations collected – roughly $7,600 of the $25,000 goal has been collected – will go towards supporting the job training for 60 area youths between the ages of 16 and 24. “Our job training will follow an evidence-based curriculum that provides hands-on barista, food prep, and cafe management training as well as life skills group and one-on-one coaching,” Communications Manager Erica Wong tells us.
The Settlement further points out that “The cost to incarcerate a person at NYC’s Rikers Island for one month is $17,417, while our [GrandLo] program is a fraction of a cost to tax payers.”
As previously reported, the Grand Street Settlement is to operate both the onsite senior center and the 2,500 square-foot GrandLo Cafe on the ground floor of 178 Broome Street. (It shares the overall commercial space at Site 6 with a $32.9 million, 55,000 square-foot outpatient hospital for NYU Langone.) Contrary to prior reports, though, we are told that the new entity is not officially a joint venture with Think Coffee, but that its “founder has been helpful to us and is part of the cafe’s advisory committee.”
GrandLo should bow early next year.
Recent Stories
Report: Tenement Museum Workers Unionize
The front-facing staff of the Tenement Museum, after many failed attempts throughout the years, have finally agreed to unionize. A vote was held last week in which all education, retail, and visitor services employees mobilized to join Local 2110 UAW (United Auto Workers). The measure passed by a 96% margin. The vote was spurred by […]
Sunshine Cinema Signage Carted Away
Sunshine, sunset, swiftly goes the demolition. Indeed, no sooner did the sidewalk bridge appear at 141 East Houston Street than workers deposed the Sunshine Cinema neon lettering. We’re told that a van carted the signage away yesterday. Co-owner-developer East End Capital did not return our request about the fate of the letters. Meanwhile, the demolition […]
New Essex Street Market Sets Opening Date at Essex Crossing [Updated]
Seventy-nine is a momentous age for the Essex Street Market. Now, more than five years in the making, the Lower East Side institution opened by Mayor LaGuardia in 1940 is finally ready to cross Delancey. The date for its opening at Essex Crossing has been set. Mark the calendar for Monday morning, May 13. In […]
Ready to Win the Weekend? [SPONSOR]
“Let’s meet for drinks” is starting to get lamer than Netflix-and-chill. Amp up your culture factor, impress your date, and maybe even take home great new art at Superfine! Art Fair, opening May 1 with a champagne washed inaugural party in SoHo. Explore three rooms chock full of awesome art by 80+ top-tier emerging artists. […]
He Said, She Said: A Two-City Concert Review of KOLARS
KOLARS is a Los Angeles-based rock duo, formerly of folk outfit He’s My Brother She’s My Sister, and the latest in our “He Said/She Said” music series. They’ve been relentlessly on tour for the past three years (over 400 shows since 2016), and while Passover prevented us from getting to the New York gig, we […]
