An ambitious project is set to open in the Bloomingdale section of Shaw that aims to bring custom Italian espresso drinks and strengthened community ties to a neighborhood undergoing a deep transition. The Big Bear Café and its companion producer-only Sunday farmer’s market will be open for business by June 17.

The Big Bear Café and farmers’ market embodies the essence of change in the District, where inspired small businesses can have a chance to thrive due to revitalizing urban communities. But that same revitalization promises to bring a certain set of challenges to the café, with rising property values meaning often unevenly distributed benefits and losses for residents, and some embracing change more than others.

The couple behind Big Bear Café, newly elected Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner and general contractor Stu Davenport and landscape architect Lana Labermeier, says they envision creating a center for public life in Bloomingdale where neighbors can hang out and interact in the heart of the diverse community they have come to love in Northwest, DC. In addition to serving fine coffee drinks, the business plan includes live music, meeting space for groups and other community-oriented activities.

“I want to have something going on here every night,” Davenport says. “The idea from the very beginning was that this was to be a community place.”

About a year-and-a-half ago, the couple jump-started their dream of opening a San Francisco-style coffee shop, where nearly every block features a distinct café.

The endeavor began with the purchase of a building at the corner of First and R streets, NW, that was then being leased to a corner convenience store that sold alcohol and some grocery items and secured sales behind a panel of bullet-proof glass. The store’s lease was up, and partly due to the neglected state of repair of the building, the couple decided not to renew it.

Shortly after, the couple announced plans for a new life for the building. “In the end, we just decided to go for it,” Labermeier says. The Big Bear Market turned into the Big Bear Café.

Aware of the sometimes difficult transition happening in the neighborhood, the couple says they held many community meetings about the renovation to find out the preferences of as wide a cross-section of neighborhood residents as possible.

“People who didn’t want the liquor store to leave were happy when they saw what was going to replace it,” Labermeier says. “We always wanted to have a place where everyone feels welcome.”

As the small business moves in, it faces a divergent demographic base, including longtime homeowners who are feeling the pressure of dramatic change in the area they have called home for many years – and some for generations. One resident who shares the block with the café is not convinced the new business is what the neighborhood needs.

“The elderly needed a store to go to where they could buy bread and milk,” Shirley Mack says, adding that she misses the convenience of the corner store and wishes the new place would sell food staples in addition to coffee.

The Transition
The building represents an urban renovation of the most thoughtful kind. The street-level café features large picture-windows that open to the street as well as the café patio with outdoor seating. The airy room has high ceilings and shows off the historic brick-and-mortar architecture.

“You feel like you’re outside and in the neighborhood,” Robin Shuster says, sitting at an inside table by one of the open windows. Shuster helped organize the farmer’s market with the couple.

Big Bear Café will serve all Italian-style espresso drinks, with beans ordered from a distributor of fair trade and organically grown coffee, Labermeier says.

“Everything is sort of a craft. Each drink will be foamed per order, so it’s a unique product each time,” she says. A standing bar will be an option, in addition to a lounge area with a couch, a section with tables and chairs, and an umbrella-covered seating area on the patio.

Prices will range from $1.50 for a cup of French-press coffee, to $2.75 for a cappuccino, to $3.25 for a latte.

Labermeier says she is going to keep the cost down on a number of items to reach out to as a large a neighborhood clientele as possible. “The neighborhood is changing, so a lot of people can afford more expensive things, but a lot of people can’t.”

The café will also serve sandwiches, salads and soup. Labermeier will plan the menu daily according to the fresh produce available and plans to get the bulk of the ingredients from local farmers. The café does not have a full kitchen, so it will orient toward fresh dishes, like cold tomato soup, gazpacho and paninis, which can be toasted to order.

The producer-only farmer’s market will be held once a week on the block in front of the café, selling fresh local vegetables, bakery items, meats and cheeses.

Labermeier sought the expert help of market organizer Shuster, who runs the popular Mount Pleasant farmer’s market and launched a new market on June 2 at 14th and U streets, NW. Both markets run Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The Bloomingdale market is set to open June 17 and will run every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Nov. 18.

“I believe this is a neighborhood that really, really wants a farmer’s market,” Shuster says.

The market will have an active WIC program, which will allow residents to buy food using credits available through federally-funded women, infants and children nutrition grants. Producers will also accept food vouchers available to seniors.

Kevin Smith, a longtime Bloomingdale resident, is supportive of the farmer’s market, saying a lot of Bloomingdale residents currently go down to the market at the stadium to buy fresh food. Other residents expressed opposition to the parking inconvenience that having the street blocked off would create.

Building Trust
Davenport tells the story that about a year and a half ago, he was standing on the corner in front of the café sometime after the store had vacated the building and renovation was underway. It was the first time he was able to do so without feeling threatened by drug activity or the people who would loiter by the store.

“I was always intimidated to walk down the street,” adds Labermeier, who lives up the street from the café, saying that someone got shot on that corner in 2004.

Just in the last six years, homes adjacent to the café and around Bloomingdale have quadrupled in value, according to residents.

One family, outside scraping old paint off the turret of their town home on a recent Sunday afternoon, said they have seen the predominant age of the neighborhood dramatically shift from well over 50 to young professionals as elderly residents on a fixed income can’t afford to keep their homes.

Renee Richardson tells the story of Ms. Glover, an elderly woman who lived next door for the six years the Richardsons lived in Bloomingdale. Ms. Glover couldn’t afford the rise in property tax and was forced to sell.

“With the money, she got a half acre of land outside the city, but still it’s kind of sad because she had been there for 30 years,” Richardson says.

While the Richardsons are welcoming the café with open arms, other residents, such as Shirley Mack, are skeptical because they see it as part of a change in their neighborhood that is threatening.

Labermeier and Davenport stress that they have tried to stretch out a welcoming hand to the whole community and are confident doubters will become open when they see the benefits of their business plan to the neighborhood.

But Labermeier, too, is managing some hesitations, as she recounts the frequency of robberies at small businesses in the surrounding area. She is taking many precautions and if something does happen, she hopes no one gets hurt.

As changes take hold, the community is both bracing for and embracing a transition that holds little certainty for the future.

Big Bear Café promises to be a beacon for ever more changes to come, even as the new and old residents build trust together. “I feel like it’s really exciting to be a small business in this part of town,” Labermeier says.