The Café at Poplar Hall is a new restaurant located on Main Street in downtown Farmville. The restaurant is build into an antique shop and so is surrounded by antiques.
The café staff works very closely with the antique shop staff to make sure the customers are able to have a great experience.
The café has been in the works since 2010 but it finally opened in January this year and had a grand open- ing on Feb. 7. The grand opening was broadcast on the radio station 92.9 Kickin’ Country.
The café is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and is closed on Sundays to stick with the same hours as the shops downtown.
The Café at Poplar Hall had a different general manager while it was in the works. They are now under new management with General Manager Charles Stetson. The café is owned by the Bozarth family, which is located in Northern Virginia and was unable to comment due to their location.
The mission statement of the café says that they want the food to stand out and the service needs to be efficient, prompt and kind and that the café doesn’t just offer food and drinks but antiques and a unique experience.
Sous Chef Thomas Rundstrom said, “It’s a [stress] free environment, its unique and everything is constantly changing since it is in [an] antique store. Customers are buying antiques all the time. We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback, people like the atmosphere, they like the food, the cost and we have free Wi-Fi which is great for students. We also have coffee which brings in a lot of students because this can be another place to study.”
The menu consists of many items such as sliders, wraps, sandwiches and gourmet hotdogs, but no item is over $10.
The menu has been a trial and error, according to Rundstrom. They took customer suggestions into consideration, one of which was to add appetizers so they did. They also have some dishes that are named after their most loyal customers.
The café has several daily specials. Their soup of the day changes once every three days, along with a daily breakfast special, a lunch special and the bread pudding.
Breakfast is also served all day. The lunch rush at the café is from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. and it’s very hectic but fun and worth it, according to Rundstrom.
A new restaurant downtown in Farmville adds another place to go eat, but there have been a lot of closings downtown due to the economic times.
Stetson said, “When we launched, we contacted the chamber of commerce and of course all of our connections in Farmville and we got a huge response from that and they have all been really supportive. We are just really focused on bringing quality food to downtown Farmville.”
For employees, they look for trustworthy and dependable, hardworking people. They want people who can perform well under pressure. The servers get paid minimum wage plus tips.
According to Stetson and Rundstrom, a lot of the employees are Longwood students, which they say can help bring in the Longwood population to the café.
They are looking to expand their off site catering.
There is also a room in the back of the antique shop that they are looking to expand that is used for big party dinners, business meetings, bridal showers, etc.
The owners have talked about expanding to another location with a similar setup in an antique store.
“We’re hitting all of our goals. We had a great soft opening followed by a wonderful grand opening in February. We have exceeded all the goals I set for January and if we don’t get anymore snow I can do the same in February.” said Stetson.
The café’s Facebook page is updated daily with their specials.
For Valentine’s Day, they had a special that included a salad, entrée and dessert for two for $55. They plan to continue to do special occasion dinners and deals like this.
Kati Hall, a server at the café said, “It has been great getting to know all the new staff there and learning all of the wonderful things our manager Charles has planned for the future. The town has been so warm and welcoming and the food is out of this world.”
