When I first stepped through the doors of the close-to-completed Burchfield-Penney Art Center, I was immediately drawn to what looked like the café. This morning I called David Tanner (COO) to ask him what visitors can expect from the café in the future. He told me that the café would be run in-house (for now), and that since Oliver’s was the exclusive caterer, utilizing full access to the kitchen, the café would focus primarily on pre-made items such as sandwiched and wraps.
It sounds as if the café will also pride itself on the organic and free trade handcrafted coffees and espressos. As for the food, there will be a huge effort to buy as many local items as possible. Soups and sandwiches will also be available to round out the meals. Seeing that the space was not overly spacious I asked David if customers would be able to take food and beverages out to the upper terrace. He told me that was part of the plan – an excellent decision that should make the terrace one of the most desirable places to eat in the city.
As for the name of the eatery, David told me that they were leaning towards calling it the Orion Café. Due to Charles Burchfield’s fascination with astrology and his love of painting that particular constellation, the Orion Café is a definitely in the running for possible names. Even the cutout in the ceiling (second floor – photo) has a series of lights in it laid out in the pattern of Orion (pretty cool). David asked me whether BRO readers had any suggestions – if you do, just leave a comment.
Following are the hours of operation:
Closed on Monday
Tues, Wed, Fri 8am-5pm
Thurs 8am-9pm
Sat 10am-5pm
Sun 1pm-5pm