The New Deal Cafe is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a fundraising drive to set it on solid footing for the future.
Set up as a nonprofit co-op, the Greenbelt restaurant joins local co-ops like the Greenbelt Co-Op Supermarket, the Greenbelt Nursery School and the Greenbelt Makerspace Cooperative and nonprofits like the Old Greenbelt Theatre and the Greenbelt Museum keeping alive the city’s past as a New Deal community set up under Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The restaurant, which offers a house-made, plant-based Italian-American cuisine, got its start with a community meeting to gauge interest that drew 600 people. On Dec. 30, 1995, it opened in the city’s Community Center, serving light meals, dessert and coffee on Friday and Saturday nights.
In 2000, it expanded into a full-time restaurant with its own space at 113 Centerway in the Roosevelt Center in the city’s historic district. And in 2018, it switched to an entirely vegan menu with food prepared by the owners of D.C. Vegan Catering.
Beyond its vegan dishes, the New Deal Cafe is also a popular local music venue with everything from shows by the Wild Anacostias to open mic nights to a Frank Zappa cover band.
The fundraiser will help upgrade and repair floors, ceilings and a bricked-up picture window; replace kitchen, office and sound equipment; explore the addition of solar panels or a green roof; and pay off debt.
The cafe’s owners — 200 members of the Greenbelt community who run the co-op — hope to raise $250,000 by the end of the year. If they raise enough money, they hope to set up an endowment that can be used for future projects.
You can become a member here for just $25 a year or donate directly here.
