Plight of the Green Street Cafe, Northampton, Mass.

Green Street Café, 62 Green Street, Northampton Mass has been located on the grounds of Smith College for almost 20 years and is a well known Pioneer Valley restaurant and good community neighbor. In 2003, before the problems began with Smith College, the restaurant earned not only local but national recognition in Gourmet Magazine, Bon Appetit, Yankee Magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic Travel Channel, many New England guide books and Frommers Travel Guides. The restaurant is co-owned by John Sielski and his husband James Dozmati.

Smith has been at odds with the Café over the past few years whose owners say that Smith is trying to muscle them out of the neighborhood to accommodate the new $100 million science and engineering center scheduled to open in 2009. Sielski and Dozmati claim that Smith’s actions have resulted in their loss of $400,000 in the business and a mountain of debt, loss of their retirement income, loss of their credit, health insurance and their home. There is no way that the restaurant can survive under the current time frame of the lease as they have too much debt for their capacity and the number of years left on the lease that ends in 2012.
They are very concerned that they will have to close the restaurant due to the uncertainty over their future and the financial loss they have accrued over the past few years because of the closing of the restaurant and Smith’s unwillingness to make them whole. Northampton and the Valley would lose another small business that befits the character of the city and has provided local residents and students with jobs, good food, and a welcoming environment.

They are seeking from the President of Smith College Carol Christ the promise to fulfill the promise she made publicly and repeatedly to keep whole the Green Street Café. This promise was also echoed by Mayor Claire Higgins.