11/23/2022
As many of you are aware, we opened our doors in Spring of 1998 with the dream of creating a unique shop and gathering place that would be a bright spot for our customers, employees and ourselves. The Picket Fence Cafe has been all of that for us - and we hope for you too. In 1998, we opened the store as “The Clayton Ridge Farm Meat Market and Gift Shop” with the Picket Fence Café occupying a small portion of the space. As market-forces and customer-demands evolved, our business focus changed from a meat market/deli to a restaurant/catering service. It has been a wonderful journey from a dream between Farmer’s Markets, to opening our doors (not entirely sure what we were doing!) to watching our business grow, survive and thrive despite all of the business challenges that life threw our way.
The Picket Fence Cafe has been the adventure of a lifetime for both of us but this will be our last holiday season as we intend to close our restaurant/store by sometime next spring. This decision is bittersweet but our lives are now calling us in different directions. It is time for bucket-list activities, new adventures and spending more time with family & friends.
We are incredibly grateful to our customers, our community, and the absolute best team we could imagine. If we are completely honest, we weren’t sure we would be successful when we first started but we were willing to give it a go. We had no idea that The Picket Fence Cafe would do so well - that you all would embrace and love this little shop as you have. We are incredibly proud of the business we have created, grateful for all that we have learned along the way and better for the relationships we have built with our employees, vendors, customers and one another.
So . . . in the meantime, let’s make the next few months the best yet! At this point, we intend to be open through Valentine’s Day unless something unforeseen develops. Our store will continue to operate as usual - lots of new arrivals and what we hope to be one of our best holiday offerings. We intend to honor all our booked catering jobs but won’t take any new catering for dates after February 14, 2023. You can look forward to some additional promotions later in the winter as we prepare ourselves for closing. Stay tuned for additional details as we get closer to that point in time. And, we wanted to make sure everyone has an opportunity to use those prized Picket Fence Cafe gift certificates!
On a final note - we know there are more than a few entrepreneurial spirits on the receiving end of this announcement and we anticipate the question, "will you sell The Picket Fence Cafe?" . . .The answer is yes/no/maybe and needs to be discussed with the interested parties.. For serious inquiries only, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
With grateful hearts ❤,
Jane & Tom Augustyn
