Community’s on the Menu at Meeting Grounds

Carie McMahon, owner of Meeting Grounds Café in Springvale.

Photo: Gail Burnett

By Gail Burnett

Meeting Grounds Café in Springvale and Starbucks in Sanford both opened last December, and both offer delicious espresso drinks and places to enjoy food and company. The comparison pretty much breaks down after that.

While the Starbucks in the Center for Shopping is one of about 17,000 in the United States, Meeting Grounds is one of a kind. And while much of the business at Starbucks, like other franchise coffee shops in town, is drive-up, Meeting Grounds is strictly a walk-in place.

Owner Carie McMahon describes her restaurant as more or less the opposite of a profit-driven business. To her, it’s a kind of ministry – a way to help people relax and connect with each other.

The idea for the shop came to McMahon relatively recently, as her role as the mother of eight home-schooled children began to change. “When my baby graduated, it was like ‘What do I want to do now?’ I wanted to spend all day drinking coffee with friends,” she said.

Because she is in charge of a crew of young workers – most of them family and friends – McMahon doesn’t often have time just to sit and drink a latte. “I’m a chaos coordinator,” she jokes.

McMahon doesn’t cook and relies on her staff, especially chef Patrick Miller, to bake muffins and rolls, fix croissants and other treats that come partially ready, and prepare sandwiches, salads and soups.

Before Meeting Grounds could hold its “soft opening” last November, McMahon and her family – including husband Ed, owner of McMahon’s Water Services in Alfred – had to do some major remodeling work to the building, which sits across a parking lot from Springvale Hardware and the 7-Eleven store. The building had housed a small barber shop for about 40 years and a number of other businesses, including most recently a pet groomer and a second-hand shop. It’s now one space that features a variety of cozy seating choices in two big rooms. Most days, the shop has two “rush hours” as people come from around 8-10 am for coffee and treats and from 11:30 am to 1 pm for light lunches.

McMahon sometimes rents out the back room for meetings and classes; other days it’s occupied by people using free Wi-Fi to work quietly on their laptops. Soon there will be one more seating possibility – tables on the patio on the Main Street side of the building.

Unlike most coffee shops, Meeting Grounds is mainly a weekday business. It started opening on Saturdays this month to handle the expected higher summer traffic, but it will go back to five days a week in the fall. That’s in part because of McMahon’s strong faith – she and her family are active in the Mercy Chapel in South Sanford – and also because she wants the young people who work for her to be able to spend time with their families.

“We’re doing this for fun,” she said. “Family comes first.”