After reinventing due to COVID, Redding market, cafe looks to expand - Danbury News Times

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REDDING — Christina Mattinson, like other business owners, was faced with a life-changing question when COVID-19 struck: What could she do to help her small-scale market cafe survive the pandemic?

The Old Mill Market and Cafe was a snug brick- and- mortar, offering residents locally-sourced products, fresh pastries, specialty pantry items and more from its corner post on Old Mill Road.

Mattinson recalled the place filled up with people seated at the quaint cafe on weekends. She was even beginning to recognize a certain group of regulars that would pop over daily before COVID ripped through the world.

“Everything was a little bit close together and cozy,” said Mattinson, who opened the business about 2 1/2 years ago. “Then once the pandemic hit, we realized very quickly that that business model would not sustain us through the pandemic.”

The cafe part of the business was forced to shrink. Now, she looks to focus on the cafe again and is raising money for an expansion that would allow her to do so.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to draw more people in and it will become a hub within the community,” she said.

Market and cafe

Faced with COVID restrictions and space limitations last year, Mattinson transformed the once cozy corner cafe.

“I pivoted and now it’s more market-heavy,” she said. “The market part of it really expanded throughout the last year, which meant that the tables had no place to go when we reopened.”

She moved all her tables and chairs into the basement, brought in additional refrigerators and started stocking the shelves with more products.

Mattinson maintained modest seating on the patio, but she knew customers would avoid when it rained or became cold again.

“The minute that it gets cold or too rainy, we’re going to lose that, which means that we lose half of our business,” she said.

Although patrons took a liking to the broadened market, they missed the indoor seating.

Jed Kim, a recent newcomer to Redding, said he’s really enjoyed going to the market cafe.

“Just having a place like this where I can sit down, do a little bit of work, it’s so nice,” he said. “I’d love to see what they do with the place.”

Her plans

The abutting fitness studio decided to downsize and relinquish its lease to two rooms it rented next door. Mattinson saw it as a golden opportunity to revive her original vision for the Old Mill Market and Cafe and jumped at the idea of expanding.

“The biggest motivation in expanding is to be able to retain that cafe business, to be able to retain the people that come in and have breakfast and lunch with us, the customers that have been keeping us open,” she said.

Mattinson wants to tear down the walls between her market and the studio to open it up as a dining area. She said the new additions would allow her to bring dust off the old tables and chairs, as well as give the market a new street entrance and more visibility.

“Our visibility right now is absolutely terrible. Half of the year it’s [the entrance] hidden by beautiful landscaping,” she said.

Mattinson hopes to start the renovation when business is slower in August, but has not entered into a lease agreement with her landlord for the supplemental rooms. She would have to close the market and cafe because of the dust construction could kick up.

She’s had an architect draw up a floor plan, but still needs to go to the building department for approval. She said the layout was previously conjoined but later divided.

Shaun Donnelly, a town building official, remembered the space being worked on some years ago but couldn’t speak to what walls were put up.

“It’s hard for me to say if she can do it or not if I haven’t seen the plans,” he said.

Aimee Pardee, Redding’s land use director echoed Donnelly, but said reconfiguring the space is “certainly doable” considering the first floor is approved for mixed-use retail. Her plan would have to be brought to both the town’s zoning and building departments.

Before Mattinson brings her proposal forward, she is raising money for the construction. Her GoFundMe page asks the community to help her raise $75,000 to cover the expansion’s costs.

“The hope is that I’ll get a good portion of it. “If we get $30,000 then maybe it covers the bulk of what needs to happen immediately,” she said, explaining that some of the expenses are not urgent but would come down the road.

“Maybe we won’t be able to afford exactly what we need in the beginning, but we’ll get there,” she added.

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After reinventing due to COVID, Redding market, cafe looks to expand - Danbury News Times
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