Most coffee shop openings don’t warrant a full-blown ribbon cutting ceremony with neighborhood VIP’s in attendance. But the GrandLo Cafe at 178 Broome St. is not most coffee shops.
The social enterprise business in the big Essex Crossing project is run by Grand Street Settlement as a job training program. After a week in soft-open mode, the cafe was officially opened this past Friday, with local elected officials and other neighborhood leaders offering their congratulations.
The ribbon cutting honors went to Sylvia Montero, board president of the non-profit set up to run the business, and Amy Gomez, an 11th grader in the first training class. City Councilmember Carlina Rivera and State Sen. Brian Kavanagh were in attendance, as well as the heads of several local settlement houses and other non-profits. Ron Moelis, founding partner of L+M Development Partners, was also there. L+M is part of the consortium building Essex Crossing. Like others speaking last week, Moelis credited Grand Street’s executive director, Robert Cordero, who was determined to open the social enterprise cafe and originally pitched the idea to the developers.
The GrandLo Cafe is ope from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. daily
