BRADFORD, Vt. — When Julie Porter would walk through her hometown of Bradford with her grandmother, her grandmother would often stop to catch up with someone she knew.
Both her grandparents were social, and Porter has long dreamed of owning a cafe that could be a place for people to connect with each other the way they did.
“I was always amazed by how well-connected they were in their community,” said Porter, now a 43-year-old Bradford resident.
When Vittles, a casual sandwich shop, closed last fall, she saw an opportunity to fill a need in town.
“Maybe this is my turn to build something for my community,” she thought at the time.
The former Vittles space is now being used by Averte, a mental health service, but construction is currently ongoing at 200 Main Street, where Porter plans to open Honey Bee Coffee and Tea.
At the moment, Porter is not sure when the cafe will open as renovations are still underway to subdivide the Main Street space, which formerly housed an Aubuchon Hardware. Porter declined to disclose how much she is paying to rent the space.
The cafe will offer coffee, teas, espresso drinks, and a small selection of sandwiches, salads and soups that will rotate regularly.
Also on offer will be a slew of baked goods made in-house, including two of Porter’s favorites: bagels and cinnamon rolls.
“I love a bagel. I think fresh bagels are hard to find,” Porter said. Bradford’s Bliss Village Store and Deli, for instance, sells sandwiches on bagels, but the bagels aren’t made in-house.
The cinnamon rolls use her great-grandmother’s recipe “and that’s all the information I can give,” she said, laughing.
Her grandmother and great-grandmother were some of her first baking teachers, but her fascination with making food started when she was 7 and she asked her mom to help her make Jell-O.
When her mom said they would do it some other time, Porter put her mind to making it herself, carefully reading the dessert’s instructions and mixing the sweet powder with water.
When the Jell-O failed to set, Porter began a new mission to understand why. That fascination with the alchemy of cooking and baking has inspired a long career in the culinary arts.
She attended culinary school at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, where she met her husband, Trevor Porter.
After graduating, she worked in food service before getting a job at King Arthur Baking Company in Norwich where she currently works as a food safety and quality specialist.
She eventually plans to leave her job at King Arthur to devote her full energy to Honey Bee, she said.
She plans to hire two staff members and grow from there.
To start, the cafe will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
