by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
Caffe Athena is coming back downtown.
The restaurant’s original owners, Jayvee Viger and Jack Ricketts, said they plan to reopen at the Bay Street location in early October.
“We are going to do it again,” said Viger, who is also the executive chef. “We had a beautiful business and a well-known name in town.”
Caffe Athena, which was once a hot spot for the downtown lunchtime crowd, began to show a decline in popularity after Viger and Ricketts sold the business to another restaurateur. After the sale, the new owners ran the cafe under the same name until the restaurant closed.
Viger said he is not sure what happened to the restaurant after they sold it.
“They were open for about four or five months and just disappeared,” said Viger.
Besides changing the name to “Cafe Athena by Jayvee,” Viger said the restaurant will be run almost exactly like it was when he and Ricketts previously owned it. They have even recruited about 75 percent of the original staff.
Viger said they will have to replace everything in the cafe besides the kitchen equipment, which was the only thing the previous owners left behind.
“They stripped (the cafe) down,” said Viger. “They didn’t even leave a nail in the wall.”
While renovating, Ricketts said he is planning on building a waterfall in a floral area of the European-style open dining room. Continuing with the European theme, Jayvee said the dining room will feature wrought iron tables and street lamps.
As for food, Viger said he will be using the old menu with some additional items. The cafe will have a variety of coffee drinks and daily baked breads and breakfast items, he said.
Viger said they are planning on being open for the Super Bowl, but is not sure if they will be open to the public that week or if they will rent the cafe to a private organization.
“We have plans for the Super Bowl,” said Viger, “we just don’t know what they are yet. We are open to suggestions.”
After the Super Bowl, Viger and Ricketts said they plan to extend the cafe’s hours to include evenings. Depending on the demand for evening dining, they are going to make use of the 4,000 square-foot evening dining room toward the rear of the restaurant.
As for now, Viger said he is glad to be back downtown and in the old location. Since selling the cafe, Viger said he has received hundreds of phone calls from patrons wondering why the restaurant was closed. He said people even offered them money to reopen.
“I had people — businesses, law firms — call me and beg me to come back,” he said.
Now that he is back, Viger said he is sure people that have been downtown for a while will recognize the cafe once it opens.
“It will be just as good as it was before, if not better,” said Viger. “I think we are going to do real well.”