Train station to get a new coffee shop and bakery

March 28, 2022  |  By Lisa Scagliotti

Members of Revitalizing Waterbury and Black Cap Coffee at today's lease-signing for the Waterbury Train Station. Left to right, front: Laura Vilalta, Black Cap owner, and Theresa Wood, RW board president. Back: Danielle Dolisie, Black Cap general manager; Ashia Messier Black Cap head baker; real estate brokers Carl Bailin of Paul Spera for Black Cap and Esther Lotz for RW; Mark Pomilio, Jr. RW economic development director; Karen Nevin, RW executive director; Keith Roberts, lawyer for RW. Photo courtesy Revitalizing Waterbury

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional local sources on March 31, 2022.

Just over two years since the Waterbury Train Station’s café closed its doors, building owner Revitalizing Waterbury announced that it has landed a new tenant. 

Black Cap Coffee & Bakery of Vermont owner Laura Vilalta signed a lease on Monday for what will be the company’s fourth location. Black Cap operates cafés in Stowe, Morrisville and Burlington serving coffee, pastries, breakfast and lunch items. It also stocks Vermont beers to go and retail gift items. 

"I couldn't resist this beautiful space," Vilalta said in an interview after the signing. “This has been a long road. We’ve been talking about it for months and months.”

Black Cap has been in operation in downtown Stowe since 2012. It added a second shop in Morrisville in 2017 and expanded to Church Street in Burlington during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ready to expand again, Vilalta said Waterbury's train station presents a perfect opportunity, especially since its history until recently has included a busy coffee shop.

Station owners agreed. “The addition of Black Cap Coffee & Bakery to Waterbury’s downtown and to the historic train station is a perfect fit for RW’s goals for the property,” said Theresa Wood, president of Revitalizing Waterbury’s board of directors. “We are excited to welcome Laura Vilalta and her staff to bring this gem of a building back to life for the community.” 

Black Cap Coffee & Bakery owner Laura Vilalta at the Stowe café. File photo by Gordon Miller

 Adding an ‘open’ bakery  

Revitalizing Waterbury has owned the Waterbury Train Station since 2006. It leased most of the facility to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters which ran a café and visitor’s center there featuring a coffee shop, seating for patrons, and exhibits telling the Green Mountain coffee story. The café and visitors center closed in March 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and in January 2021, its parent company Keurig Dr. Pepper announced it would not reopen the operation. 

In searching for a new tenant to occupy the property that has become an anchor for the downtown, Revitalizing Waterbury sought businesses eager to be a good steward of the historic building and a part of the local community.  

Prepping the space to reopen will take several months. Mark Pomilio Jr., economic development director for Revitalizing Waterbury, said the hope is for Black Cap to open within six months. Converting the space will take some renovations, he explained.

Black Cap plans to utilize the station not only to serve customers in person, but to supply its other shops. Under the agreement with Revitalizing Waterbury, Black Cap will convert the center section of the station into an open bakery offering baked goods for sale and to help supply the chain’s other locations. 

Pomilio explained that the “open” nature means the bakery will have glass partially enclosing it so that customers can see into the kitchen where pastries and other items are being made. A four or five-foot wall would have glass above allowing for a view of bakery staff at work, he said. 

Vilalta said she likes the open bakery concept. "It reinforces the idea that everything we serve is house made from scratch," she said.

Returning the train station to the café scene

Black Cap also serves Brave Coffee which is roasted in Waterbury. “Black Cap has become a great source of growth for us, not only because we serve all three current locations, but because so many tourists come through their Stowe location, then go home and buy Brave online,” said Brave owner Scott Weigand. “I look at it as another opportunity for us to get Brave out there, and work to become Waterbury's home town coffee.”

Asked about how Black Cap will fit into Waterbury's café and coffee scene with about a half dozen other establishments serving some combination of coffee, breakfast and lunch, Vilalta said she appreciates the variety. "We are all different. Like here in Stowe. There are eight different coffee shops. Everyone is different. We all have our market and that's good," she said.

She pointed out that the Stowe shop especially has created a personality that goes beyond the food and coffee. It sells an eclectic mixture of retail items such as cards and household decorative items, small furniture pieces, and art with Vermont flair. She stopped, and with a laugh added, “It’s full of cows, cows, cows.” 

Stowe Kitchen Bath & Linens provides the merchandise and changes it up often, Vilalta said. “We try things. We adapt to the market,” she said, pointing out that it’s a different approach than, for example, the assortment of art and gift items at Stowe Street Cafe that features work by Vermont artists and craftspeople.

Weigand also noted that Brave Coffee has supplied Stowe Street Cafe with a special coffee blend since it opened in 2015, “and it will continue to do so.” 

Stowe Street Cafe owner Nicole Grenier confirms that the special Brave blend will remain a café staple for hot and cold brew and for sale by the bag. But looking ahead to Black Cap operating at the train station, Grenier said her café will make a few adjustments such as adding Vermont Artisan Coffee & Tea and possibly other local coffee producers to its offerings. Vermont Artisan, in turn, runs another local café with coffee, tea and baked goods at its roasting plant on Route 100 in Waterbury Center.

Grenier said she believes there is enough differentiation between, and enough community support for all of Waterbury’s coffee shops but she said the public plays an important role. “One thing we do hope folks are aware of though, is that coffee shops and restaurants in general are still very much navigating the long-term impacts of the pandemic, so it is just as important now as ever to continue showing all our favorite local spots support,” she said. 

And while running Stowe Street Cafe is the priority for Grenier and her team, she said they’re happy that the train station will be open again soon. “Our team are all Waterbury residents and community members first. We recognize the importance of having a strong, thriving business back in our train station, and we know our customers have more than enough love to go around,” she said. 

Looking ahead to settling in

At the train station, the new bakery will take up space previously used for seating and exhibits but Black Cap’s plans still will include seating for about 30, Pomilio said, using tables and chairs, high bar counter seating and other furniture pieces. 

Black Cap also would like to improve accessibility by constructing a ramp to the front porch and the building’s main entrance. Pomilio said the tenant will cover the cost of these improvements under the lease agreement. 

Revitalizing Waterbury officials described the lease with Black Cap as “long-term.” The previous agreement with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters was for 20 years. The company, now operating as Keurig Dr. Pepper, continued to pay rent even after the café closed in 2020. 

Black Cap owner Laura Vilalta and RW Board President Theresa Wood sign the lease for the Waterbury Train Station. Photo courtesy Revitalizing Waterbury

RW Executive Director Karen Nevin said that Keurig’s lease now will end at the end of this month given that a new tenant is lined up. However, she would not say exactly how long a term Black Cap signed for. “We are not going to share the exact length of the lease. The lease is over 10 years,” she said in an email. 

Black Cap once open will operate daily from 7 a.m. to at least 5 p.m. seven days a week. Vilalta said all of her stores are open every day and even during the pandemic, it was important to maintain that routine. 

The Waterbury Train Station is an Amtrak stop and passenger train service resumed last summer with the Vermonter line stopping twice daily, in the morning and evening. 

Once Black Cap is up and running, the building’s community room at the end nearest the Amtrak platform will reopen to coincide with the café and bakery’s hours, according to Revitalizing Waterbury. The space contains railroad exhibits curated by the Waterbury Historical Society along with visitor information and restrooms and currently is only open when Amtrak trains arrive and depart. 

As for an opening date, Vilalta said she and her team will move ahead with designs and the necessary improvements as soon as possible while still running three other stores. "We'll do the best we can," she said.