Nov 12, 2017 4 min read

The owners of Chicco Baccello are keeping the popular coffee shop and bakery on South Main in Washington at its original location, at least for now.

Co-owners Nancy Ogburn and Lisa Aprea said last week that a previously planned move to 3 N. Main St. didn’t work out following the July 12 collapse of the adjacent building at 15 N. Main St. that resulted in the rescue of a woman who was trapped for more than nine hours.

The café owners had already moved some furniture into the prospective new space at 3 N. Main, and were waiting for the city to issue permits when the collapse occurred. Rescue teams worked for more than 9 hours to free the woman from the rubble, and as a result of the rescue, damaged a wall at 3 N. Main St.

Aprea said they had deferred signing a lease until the city approved their permits for the new location.

The collapse and its aftermath required a careful demolition process that caused the first block of North Main to be closed to traffic for two months. During that time, Chicco Baccello’s owners – Aprea, Ogburn and Jim Martin – began to rethink their plans.

“We had been up in the air until probably the last month,” Aprea said, “but we had to move on.”

They eventually decided to rearrange some of the space at 239 S. Main St., where Chicco Baccello was established four years ago. The change involved moving the coffee bar to the business’s kitchen in the adjacent room. In place of the bar, a large pew from a former church, which was at the 3 N. Main St. site, was moved to the original store and placed along the exposed brick wall, creating an attractive banquette and opening up more seating.

While acknowledging that the square footage at the North Main Street location was larger, the owners said the rearranging they did at the original site now accommodates more customers. They also discussed their decision with Felix Magnotta, owner of the building at 3 N. Main.

“Felix was really great,” in understanding their situation, Aprea said.

“We have to do what we have to do,” Ogburn added.

Both Ogburn and Aprea said the lease at the current site is in effect until January of 2019. They said they wanted to complete the changes there before the upcoming holiday shopping season began.

The regular business hours are Monday through Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Aprea said Chicco Baccello will stay open until 3 p.m. on Small Business Saturday on Nov. 25, and will stay open later for the Christmas parade Dec. 1. It will also participate in the Holiday Market in the community pavilion, also Dec. 1.

And while the café is staying where it is, the owners will open a pop-up space for the holidays in Washington Crown Center’s food court in a space formerly occupied by Hogfather’s.

Back at the permanent site, they also plan to institute a new online ordering system soon.

While the café has a blackboard with a list of sandwiches named after the owners’ family members, it is continuing the tradition for some of its regular customers who often place the same order each time they call.

“We get a lot of to-go orders,” Aprea said, noting that it is adding the names of those who often have the same order.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said.

While stating that they may someday reconsider moving up to North Main Street, Ogburn and Aprea said they’re content to continue brewing, baking and making breakfast and lunches where they are for now.

“We love it here,” Aprea said.

Magnotta of Washington, who owns the building at 3 N. Main St., who acknowledged his discussion with Chicco Baccello, said his building remains empty in the aftermath of the neighboring building’s collapse.

“The inside has been repaired, I just have to paint the walls,” Magnotta said Tuesday.

But he’s still waiting for the city to declare the building safe. He said the city told him two weeks ago it would send a structural engineer to inspect his building and would also get in touch with his insurance company. So far, he said, he hasn’t heard anything.

“Everything is in limbo until the city decides it’s safe,” he said. Once that occurs, Magnotta said, “I have to either look for new tenants or sell the building.”