Caffe Lena has gotten a facelift. The landmark music venue in downtown Saratoga Springs reopens tonight after an extensive renovation.
You’ll notice right away that changes have been made to Caffe Lena. Stairs that don’t squeak.
About a year ago, the country’s oldest continuously operated folk music club announced it would undergo a six-month, $2 million renovation. The intimate space above Phila Street is set to re-open its doors tonight with a performance by The Suitcase Junket.
As last-minute preparations were under way, Caffe Lena Executive Director Sarah Craig took me on a tour around the building.
“This is how the performers get on stage now, through this door, instead of from the back of the room and coming through the audience with the instruments and so forth,” said Craig.
“Just looking at it, there’s a lot more space,” I noticed.
“There is more space. Although it’s interesting to us how much our furniture just filled it up,” laughed Craig.
Visitors will notice a new stage in the same old corner that’s higher off the ground. There will no longer be a tangle of cables and there’s a sound system built right into the stage.
There’s a new floor, a handmade acoustically-sound ceiling. The whole space was stripped down to its bones just a few months ago.
The seating area has been expanded to fill up the entirety of the space, which also used to contain a small kitchen and bathrooms. Those have been relocated in back, where an old black-box theatre once stood. The kitchen will offer more fare, but the famous cookies will still be on the menu.
Also in back is a new dressing room complete with a new bathroom and shower.
There’s a new ticket counter as well as a new lobby that opens into an atrium that’s part of a neighboring condominium project being constructed by developer Sonny Bonacio. Craig calls the shared atrium a “$500,000 partnership.”
A wide staircase wraps around the new atrium with plenty of light from the large windows. An elevator will be installed.
“That wall will disappear right down there, that’s where you’ll go into the elevator, and you’ll come off the elevator right there. Right into the Caffe Lena lobby. And that’s what will complete our conversion to being a completely accessible venue,” points out Craig.
Back inside the seating area, there are touches of the building’s history. The brickwork on the west-facing wall is still there, though there is a noticeable line to where the ceiling was raised. The same wooden shutters adorn the windows, and the building’s old sign has been preserved on the wall.
Photographer Tom Stock, who was also taking a look before opening night for another local publication, was admiring the work.
“The new space is wonderful. I was in here the day before they ripped everything else out. We had to make photographs before and now that I’m back here before it’s ready to kick off its new life, it’s still got the same vibe. It’s just a little putty, a little paint, and it’s still what it always was. It’s still Caffe Lena, baby.”
Over the past year, the Caffe Lena took its programming on the road to more than a dozen other local venues. The capital campaign is about 75 percent complete.
Craig thanked the community for its involvement in the last year.
“We can’t wait to welcome everybody back. We are so touched by how people stuck with us during our six months on the road. And when they come into this space and come back to their new home it’s just going to be the biggest excitement we’ve had in a few decades around Caffe Lena,” said Craig.
Named for longtime original proprietor Lena Spencer, the venue has been a frequent stop for local and national folk artists for more than 50 years.
For more information visit: http://www.caffelena.org/
