June 8, 2020
Dear Friends,
With heavy hearts, we announce that the New Orleans Cake Café & Bakery will permanently close its doors in coming weeks.
It has been both our honor and our pleasure to serve you these past 13 years. We signed our lease Aug. 29, 2007, the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and opened two weeks later as the first new Marigny restaurant after the storm. Our goal was to build community, by offering the comfort of delicious food and the warmth of a friendly smile. Whether we were serving Steve’s heady Crab Sandwich or the simple charm of a warm cinnamon roll, with the help of many terrific employees, we gave you our best. Along the way, we also witnessed the snippets of life you shared with us at the corner of Chartres and Spain. We’ve seen people fall in love, babies born, children grow, and even loved ones pass on. Thank you for letting us be a part of your lives. We are grateful. We are humbled. We are better people for having done this work and for knowing you.
This is a moment of new beginning for the restaurant industry. The pandemic has provided unprecedented challenges to restaurateurs – ones that we believe can be overcome. Just as we saw after the storm, there will be new and exciting opportunities to build a better system, a system that holds on dearly to the most valuable of our traditions, but also boldly embraces the future through innovation and dynamism. We will support the industry as it navigates this brave new world. But with our lease coming to an end, and fresh prospects in sight, professionally, it is time for us to move on.
The cafe will continue to offer take-out service Thursday through Sunday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., until our final day of operation, Sunday, June 28. After that, we are selling the business. It is a perfect turn-key operation in an ideal location. Interest has been expressed, but nothing is settled. Anyone who is interested, should get in touch. As for us, we plan a life steeped in art, learning, teaching, writing, music, and maybe even, Sundays off. For all of you, our dear friends, we wish lives of daring, delight, and deliciousness.
Thank you. We love you.
Steve and Becky Himelfarb