Final weekend arrives for Beacon eatery
When Joe Robitaille bought Homespun Foods, a mainstay at 232 Main St. in Beacon, he didn’t plan to change much.
Offering an array of Mediterranean- and Middle Eastern-influenced soups, salads, platters and sandwiches, the previous owner, Jessica Reisman, had cultivated a dedicated clientele after opening the restaurant in 2006. Homespun seated about 40 customers in its cozy, cafe-like setting, with extra tables in a garden patio.
Robitaille, a sommelier for eight years in New York City before he moved to Beacon with his wife and three sons, took over in November 2019. He hoped to retain the down-home feel that Reisman had created while adding table service, dinner hours and an extensive selection of wine.
That was the plan until the pandemic arrived four months later. On March 16, 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered restaurants and bars to close, permitting only takeout and delivery. Homespun opted to shut down for 10 weeks while health officials scrambled to contain COVID-19.
By the end of June, the city had allowed restaurants to create “parklets,” or tables for outdoor dining in curbside parking spots. Eight months into the new gig, Robitaille found himself planting flowers to spruce up his outdoor dining area on Main Street. Indoor customers would return over the Memorial Day weekend of 2021, but nothing was normal.
After an 18-year run, Homespun will close its doors on Sunday (Aug. 18). An announcement of a new business in the space is forthcoming.
“We tried our best to make this thing work,” Robitaille said. “It’s been a hit on so many levels. We had a lot of great experiences with people.”
Robitaille, who has a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry and creative writing and a master’s in education, both from Brooklyn College, plans to spend time with his family before re-entering the academic world. Before Homespun, he was an adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn and Lehman colleges.
While the early days of the pandemic seem in some ways like a distant memory, the ripple effects on small businesses remain.
“Costs are going up so much,” Robitaille said. As consumers struggle with inflation, “going out to eat becomes more difficult. Restaurants are trying to figure out how to keep people coming back but not being too expensive.”
He noted that some business owners are experimenting with artificial intelligence and ordering by phone while in the restaurant as ways to eliminate employees and keep costs down. Although Homespun did not go in that direction, “unfortunately, that’s the trend,” he said. “It takes away from the human element of eating in a restaurant that we all love.”
George Mansfield, who closed his popular Dogwood bar and restaurant on East Main Street last year, said his business also never fully recovered from the shutdown. “In the best of times, the restaurant industry has very tight margins,” he said. A 10 percent profit would be ideal but 6 percent is more realistic, “and when you have all these other factors — the cost and availability of goods and labor, credit card fees — working against you, those margins become increasingly slim.
“If Dogwood had been making money, I would have stayed open,” Mansfield said.
Robitaille said he’s grateful to the chefs, sommelier Heather Barr and other staff who worked alongside him during challenging times. “It’s almost difficult to remember how hard 2020 and 2021 were for businesses, especially restaurants,” he said. “But our staff came together and persevered through it and we felt like we made something special here.”
