Submitted By: lynn.joy.steinberg@gmail.com – Click to email about this post
It was a blow to learn that The Roost, the beloved community coffee house and cafe in downtown Wheeler, may have to shut its doors at the end of November. After nine years, operating on the ground floor of the Old Wheeler Hotel, Roost owner Heidi Cummins has, without warning or explanation, received an eviction notice from her landlord. If she is forced to close her doors, it will mark more than the shuttering of another local business. This part of the coast will lose what has essentially functioned as a community living room, a place where you can linger over a cup of coffee and where you’re bound to run into a neighbor or two while enjoying one of Heidi’s freshly baked pastries. The overwhelming majority of Roost customers are local – and those who aren’t often remark on the warm welcome they receive, and how everyone seems to know everyone else at The Roost. Places like that are so hard to find these days, on the coast or anywhere else. So I’m hoping that Heidi’s lease is renewed – and if it isn’t, that she finds another home for The Roost nearby.