Bartavelle Is Closing
A Little About the Best Job I Will Ever Have And How They Need Your Support
The plan was to get a job, save a bit of money, and likely move to New York. It was 2019 and I had just quit my job at Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes and was staying in New Orleans for a bit visiting my sibling and a couple friends. While they were at work I would find a coffee shop and peruse craigslist. I’d been working in food service at least five years by that point so they were mostly front of house barista jobs I was looking at. I applied for a random cafe called Bartavelle that I’d never heard of before.
The following day I got an email and we scheduled a phone interview, which Samuel, my soon to be boss said he’d never done. Eventually he asked when I would be back in the Bay and we scheduled a stage, or trail shift. When I got back and drove out to Berkeley I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Everyone who worked there and came in seemed really nice, at ease, just chill. What’s more it felt like everyone knew everyone. It was a place that might actually have community, something I hadn’t found since coming back to the Bay.
Until six months ago, I had worked there for five years as a barista. Over that time, the people working have changed, along with the location, but the community has remained the constant thread. It's the main piece that brings people back, the sense of comfort and welcome that Samuel and Suzanne created. There are regulars that have been coming, almost daily, for the whole twelve years, and many more who try to come once a week. I know these people well, the people who still work there know them all too, and it's that comfort of being known in a place that brings people back. Yes, people love the food and the coffee, but it seems more so the place itself, the community, that brings so many people back.
But sadly last week Bartavelle announced that they would be closing their doors this coming Sunday, followed by a GoFundMe link in order to pay their staff and their vendors.
It came as a shock to me, the still working staff, Berkeley, and the greater Bay Area food community, when this was announced. I’m still shocked, stunned that tomorrow will be the last day that Bartavelle opens its doors, barring, as Samuel said on Instagram, a miracle.
But this will be a place hard to die for most of us who have known it and enjoyed it, even for a small bit of time. In many ways I owe so much of my current life in the East Bay to Bartavelle. It’s where I first started to find and create my own community. I found my first spot in Oakland there, lived with a coworker, and my studio apartment was offered to me from Samuel. Most of my friends today, in some way, have a connection with this place. It has given me the time and the means to write, to work on the process of writing until I was at a place where I could pursue it full-time, without having to worry so much about paying the bills. Bartavelle has been my community, a place I can go, even in the short six months I haven’t worked there, when I’m feeling lonely and looking to see some familiar faces. It’s another home. It’s the ideal sort of third place.
This week, I’ve heard people describe the ways it helped them open up to others, how it gave them a sense of place when they were absolutely lost, broke, depressed, and grieving. I’ve heard old coworkers talk about how it changed their mindset around service. I’ve even heard now cafe owners talk about getting their start at Bartavelle, and owing their desire to open a business to this place.
But, community is not always easy. Community is built on support and the mutual respect and love to stay put until things are resolved. Sometimes the community as a whole needs support, which is why Samuel and Suzanne are asking if anyone can donate to their GoFundMe page, or come to the cafe and tip wildly today and tomorrow. This will likely be your last chance to do so.
Bartavelle reshaped me for the better. It kept me in the Bay. I was going to go to grad school. I was trying to leave the Bay which I hated when I started there. I was going to move to New York City. I had a whole different life planned. But the community I found in that place in so many ways, all good, kept me here.
It’s felt like witnessing a slow death over the course of this week. It’s been busy there to say the least, but more so the shock and sadness, not only in the eyes of everyone still working there, but the faces of the customers. They need your help. If you can, please give it. Everyone who works there needs any support they can get.
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Cole, you were such a welcoming presence at Bartavelle! You and the rest of the staff are the biggest reason I’m going to miss the café so much.