The lunch rush at Norwich Square Cafe was flying by for volunteer kitchen worker Peter Brink one afternoon earlier this month.
Clad in an apron and blue plastic gloves, Brink, of Norwich, had made nine paninis so far, following directions — including pictures — that café owners Brent and Fausta Gosselin had left hanging on the wall above the panini ingredients in the restaurant’s small kitchen.
“Three hours is going fast,” he said, during a brief break.
A regular cafe customer who is partial to Norwich Square’s pastrami paninis and coffee, Brink is among the people who stepped up to work to keep the cafe open during the Gosselins’ vacation to Italy — Fausta Gosselin’s native land.
“I love having this place in the middle of town,” Brink said.
He added that King Arthur Flour’s cafe on Route 5 is also nice, but it’s not in the village center.
As another order came in, Brink had to get back to work.
The Gosselins — who opened the cafe in January in the former Allechante space next to Norwich Wine and Spirits — had originally planned to close it during their vacation, but were persuaded to keep it open most days with volunteer help. Without enough volunteers, the cafe has been closed Saturdays, but otherwise it has remained open for normal business hours.
Brent’s mother, Priscilla Gosselin, who normally does the cafe’s books, is overseeing the volunteers as they work to keep Norwich residents and visitors in coffee, soups and paninis.
“We always said this wasn’t supposed to be about us,” Priscilla Gosslin said, in a phone interview on Monday. “This kind of says it all about the community supporting it.”
Any revenue from the three weeks the Gosselins are away will be donated to charity when they return, Brent Gosselin said in a June interview at the cafe.
“Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost me?” he said. “It’s not about free labor.”
Instead, keeping the cafe running with volunteer labor is intended to shore up community support for the venture, he said.
The community had been looking for a cafe to take Allechante’s place when the Gosselins arrived on the scene, he said. Allechante had closed more than a year before Norwich Square opened.
Gosselin, who has both a culinary and business background, said operating a cafe “is not easy” and requires a baseline understanding that “(you’re) not going to make much money.”
During their vacation, a donation jar sits on the counter in place of a tip jar. A note on the side of the jar invites customers to make suggestions of charities to act as recipients of the donations.
After their return on Monday, the Gosselins plan to host a party, featuring new recipes, wines and stories from Italy as a thank you to the volunteers.
Several customers voiced their support for the cafe during lunchtime in early August. David Deiss, of Pomfret — who has an office for his rare books business next door — was among them.
As he was waiting for his lunch, Deiss said the volunteers were doing a good job keeping things going in the owners’ absence.
“Everything is the same,” said Deiss.
Susan Foster, of White River Junction, a regular at the cafe, came in to buy a bag of granola.
“I’m very, very pleased that it’s staying open,” Foster said.
In addition to the cafe’s granola, Foster said she likes the Caesar and pear and arugula salads.
Marion Cross School third-grade teacher Lisa Holley, visiting the cafe for her second time, said she was grateful the eatery is there.
“(We were) desperate for a place,” she said, calling the cafe a convenient spot for coffee and soup during the school year.
“I’ll be back soon,” she said, as she left with her lunch.
Upon exiting the small restaurant, Paul Danos, of Hanover, described his first visit to the cafe as “not stressful.”
Danos, a former dean and current professor at the Tuck School of Business, had enjoyed some tomato soup, which he said was “to die for.” He and his wife, Mary Ellen, had split a panini.
Though the waitstaff seemed a bit green — “I think they made their first cappuccino” — Danos said he was unaware that they were volunteers.
“I thought it was just a normal commercial venture,” he said.
The ranks of volunteer waitstaff included new Norwich resident Lee Steppacher. Steppacher, formerly of Concord, Mass., had seen the opportunity to volunteer on the town’s listserv and saw it as a chance to get to know the town, she said.
“It’s fun to become part of the community,” she said.
She spoke in between preparing espresso drinks and delivering paninis to tables. In addition to her work at the front of the house, Steppacher had also made quiche and washed dishes during her first shift, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
She lingered after her shift was over and joked that she was working overtime.
In addition to the panini signage, the Gosselins prepared things like cookie dough in advance of their departure, both to take the pressure off Priscilla Gosselin and the volunteers and to maintain standards of quality. They also offered a training session for those who could make it.
Priscilla Gosselin had no complaints about the inexperienced volunteers.
“They’re all so willing to learn,” she said.
Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.
