The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Popular eatery perseveres
Cafe 56 revived during pandemic, thanks to a little help from loyal patrons
MIDDLETOWN — The resurrection of the cozy breakfast and lunch spot across from Superior Court is a story of perseverance, hope and efforts by devoted customers instrumental in its reopening despite the pandemic.
Sabrina Cortés, owner of Cafe 56 on Court Street, at 102 Court St. in Middletown, insists on the freshest food available for her clientele, made from scratch whenever possible.
Cortés, a former executive chef who hails from Guatemala, owns the business in a late 1700s building. She began her endeavor in 2012, after leasing the former Court Street Cafe.
Her logo is the macaw of Mayan culture, which adorns her door and the large artwork on the pained, tin walls.
When the pandemic shuttered businesses, schools, institutions and agencies across Connecticut in mid-March, she closed the restaurant, hoping, like so many, that it only would be for a short time.
Cortés’ experience applying for a small business loan was fraught with frustration and delays. She may have been discouraged by the mountain of bureaucracy she encountered, but she is not one to give up easily.
Paperwork processors and loan agents are beyond overwhelmed, Cortés knows, and she sympathized with them.
She closed her doors March 23, knowing she would be unable to serve customers after the governor shuttered businesses. Cafe 56 operates on a very low profit margin, said Cortés.
That’s when she applied for assistance from the Small Business Administration relief fund. She was unable to ask for Paycheck Protection Program funds because she doesn’t pay herself a salary.
The process was so drawn out, lasting through May, that she had to make the difficult decision to close. At one point, Cortés called the SBA — and was told she was number 1,767. “That’s crazy,” she said.
That’s when she worked with her landlords to renegotiate the rent through Dec. 31.
She eventually did get the money, with the help of a customer of eight years, meter monitor Fred Kesten, who urged her to
fight by emailing state representatives. She reached out to several, all of whom replied in some way.
It was state Sen. Matt Lesser who called Cortés and explained her plight to a contact at the SBA.
Lesser posted about Cortés Saturday on his Facebook page: “A few weeks ago, Sabrina told her customers she was shutting down due to the pandemic and people were heartbroken. But then she contacted me, and, working with the great CT team at the U.S. Small Business Administration, we were able to get her the financing she needed to reopen,” he wrote.
Not soon after, things began to move quickly, and she obtained the funds. On Aug. 11, she told her devoted customers via social media that she was reopening. Patrons were thrilled, said Cortés, who was trained at the Culinary Institute in San Francisco.
Her expertise is world cuisines — interpreted by her years of experience in the industry.
“In Latin America, I ate for 18 years of my life rice and beans,” she said. The legume is a staple of meals in Central America.
Families routinely cook five pounds of black beans at the beginning of the week. Each day, some is ladled off and transformed into a variety of dishes, including soup, stew, crispy refried beans, and a dessert with creme fraîche, plantains and cinnamon.
When she graduated from culinary school, with high honors, Cortés prepared food on private sailing vessels, eventually moving to large cruise lines, such as Expeditions Cruises. She traveled to locales such as Antarctica, the Bering Strait, Japan and Cambodia.
“Whenever you are grilling burgers — near penguins on an iceberg, what can be better than that?” Cortés said.
She was captivated by the bones of the historic building she inhabits, which retains much of the original architecture. “That’s when I fell in love with this little place.”
Cortés, who lives in East Hampton with her husband, chose Middletown because of its location in the center of the state.
Every week she conjures up a pickup menu representing food from a different part of the globe: France, seared tuna Nicoise salad; Mexico, chicken enchiladas verdes with creme fraîche; American bistro, Angus beef burger on greens (called a meadow); and Spain, Valencian paella with gazpacho and caramel flan.
A pickup meal for two costs $27.50 for two. Vegetarian and gluten-free food also are available.
Cortés insists on the freshest food, including cutting her own potato chips and french fries, and making Portuguese rolls from scratch. “I live cooking. That’s my life,” she said. “Food is languages, and I speak them.”
Reservations for pickup must be made two days in advance. The restaurant is open Tuesday to Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. For information, visit Cafe 56 on Facebook, call 860-740-4711 or go to cafe56ct.com.