A New Pittsfield Cafe is Bringing Convenience and Homecooked Meals
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – A cafe is bringing convenient breakfast and lunch to the city.
Karli Cassavant recently opened her new space, GourMay Cafe, at 1575 West Housatonic St.
Karli grew up in Richmond and took culinary classes at Taconic High School, where her teacher introduced her to her first catering job she worked for about a decade before leaving, and is now able to come back to it.
"In my 20s, I kind of left the kitchen behind and took what I call my 'big girl' job. Last summer life kind of happened where I was in a position where I could reevaluate if this was something I could do or not, so I started kind of toying with the idea and kind of putting some feelers out, and growing up in this area, this has always been a spot that I used to like talk to the landlord about, of like, maybe that's where I'll open my first cafe, so with looking around the area again and having this be open, it kind of just all fell into place," she said.
She signed the lease on the property back in October and started working on her new space in February, where she had to redo a lot of the work inside, including new flooring, ceiling work, painting the walls, and getting new equipment and furniture.
"We built out all of those tables, the countertops are all handmade, so we really kind of tried to give it less of that commercial chainy feel and more of a cozy cafe," she said.
Cassavant said she had always wanted to open a cafe since she was 15. When the opportunity arose, she wanted to make an affordable and healthy option for families who may be in a rush.
"My sister and I used to toy with the idea. We came very close at one point in our late teens, but being so young, the financial side was just not there. So we've gone through lots of different names, lots of different images of what we kind of envisioned, and getting to this point, I kind of wanted that home-cooked feel that is affordable and convenient, that everyone is on the go these days, that no parent wants to have fast food four nights a week because their kids have sports after school or they've got an appointment, so being able to be an option that you can actually get a quality home-cooked meal and a healthier option without having to hit that fast food line."
Her play on words with the name "May" came from her family always calling her that, as it is also her middle name, and she thought it would be a cute play on words.
"We do a very kind of grab-and-go breakfast, so breakfast sandwiches, smoothies, muffins, bagels, and then lunch we do paninis, which you can't find all that much around here, a couple of specialty salads, and then we have some grab-and-go dinners. So right now we do typically two or three a week to keep in the case, and kind of just rotate through."
She eventually would like to have a couple more options a day, but is currently finding out her capacity.
She mentioned she is implementing many community events, including Cars and Coffee one Sunday of every month, which just began.
"That was a huge turnout. So it's kind of just that car parade where guys who have cars show up, and people are welcome to kind of come check them out, come grab some food. And we want to host some craft nights in here. We plan to do charcuterie boxes and picnic items for the summertime, so if people are heading out to a picnic or heading to Balderdash, they have those options,’ she said.
GourMay Cafe's hours are currently Wednesday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
"I'm kind of in a transitional period, where everyone that I hired is mostly here for home for college, so in the next six weeks, I'm going to be rehiring more permanent staff. So once we kind of get our flow down and have fully staffed both front and back, we're gonna add Mondays and Tuesdays too."
Cassavant wanted to help base her cafe on the feeling she gets at one of her favorite delis.
"My expectation for them is to have a quality meal with a pretty convenient and fast pace, that there will hopefully always be enough options, regardless of your tastes, your dietary needs, and kind of just have that the way I built everything out. There's an Italian market down in West Springfield that I love, and when I walk in, I can feel the endorphins releasing from my body. I'm just so happy to be there. Everything, I'm like, 'Oh my god, that all looks so good. I don't know what I want to get. I want to get one of everything,' and that's like the feel I want to give people, that when they come in, they know that they're going to get a quality meal, they're going to enjoy."
Tags: new business, cafe,
