After 17 years on Butler St., Coca Cafe has been put up for sale.
Carrie Rudolph, part of the team behind the popular Lawrenceville brunch spot, has been contemplating moving on from the cafe for about a year. When COVID-19 came into the picture, it “felt like the universe’s way of telling me I had stayed 10 minutes too long at the party,” Rudolph says.
“[Putting the cafe up for sale] was the hardest decision I have ever had to make,” she says. “But the more I thought about opening back up and possibly putting staff and guests at risk, I realized it was going to take someone else with a different set of skills to pull that off successfully.”
The cafe has been offering takeout off-and-on during the pandemic, but Rudolph found that doing so brought up many issues, one of the biggest being that people rarely order breakfast for takeout. Currently, the cafe is offering dinner for pre-order only.
Rudolph says she is now “ready to jump in [her] car and drive till [she] finds a new life.”
“Whatever happens,” she continues, “I wouldn't have wanted anything more for myself than what Coca gave to me and everyone else it touched over the years.”
The site of Coca Cafe has been listed for sale through the Specialty Group in Ross and includes furniture, fixtures, equipment, and the liquor license. Vice president Sidney Sokoloff says they already have had a large interest in the space.