Come August 14, residents of Pine Plains will have one fewer place to land for coffee, breakfast and lunch. After just under three years, Rosey’s is ending its run.
Jamie Gerber, Rosey’s owner and manager, said a variety of reasons were behind the decision to close shop – chief among them the impending departure of Rosey’s chef, Brit Ko. Ko is off to Rutgers University to get a Master’s degree in poetry, and to Gerber, the departure of a chef who is “such a creative and thoughtful cook” and who meshed so perfectly with Rosey’s fit and feel presented an opportunity for reevaluation.
“There’s a part of me that thinks that I don’t want to work with anyone else,” said Gerber, who uses they/them pronouns. “It’s been such a great adventure, and I’m very pleased to know so many more people in town, and feel involved in Pine Plains. But to be honest, I don’t totally enjoy running a business. If you want to make it as a business owner, you have to want to make money, and I’m not motivated by that.”
What has been motivating, they said, was the community they’ve found in town and at Rosey’s. Gerber first moved to Pine Plains from New York City to work at Chaseholm Farm. They had little to no farming experience, but Sarah Chase — an old college friend who co-owns Chaseholm with her brother Rory — took a chance on Gerber.
“Chase took a big risk in taking me on, and it was truly a lifesaving gesture,” Gerber said. “[She was] so incredibly generous, in terms of bringing me into her community.”
While at Chaseholm, Gerber began to operate a food cart that offered coffee and pastries. Customers were mostly neighbors and friends visiting Chaseholm’s farm store, and Gerber described that first venture as a way, in part, to “trick friends into visiting us at the farm.”
From that food cart, Gerber eventually moved toward a business, and in October 2021, they signed a lease on the space at 2987 Church St., marking the beginning of Rosey’s.
That decision to open a cafe arose from not only Gerber’s love of sharing food with people, but also a desire to “create a space where my friends and neighbors could share food that was also grown by our friends and neighbors.” Indeed, a hallmark of Rosey’s has been a wide variety of food produced at Chaseholm, from farm-fresh eggs to tender pork. Gerber gave full credit to Ko and the kitchen staff for the delicious dishes that appeared on the café menu.
But another element of Gerber’s decision to start Rosey’s had to do with Rosey’s namesake and its motto. The store is named for Sarah Chase’s mother, Rosey, with whom Gerber has developed a strong connection.
“Rosey and her twin sister, Tully, are always saying, ‘So good to see you.’ I love that spirit [of] I’m so glad to see you, I’m so glad to connect, I’m so glad you’re here,” Gerber said. “I’ve always felt very seen and loved by Rosey, and I wanted to cultivate a space that had that feeling to it.”
And while Gerber was able to build that atmosphere at Rosey’s, over time, the demands of running a business began to take a toll: “You’re always working, there aren’t really any days off. At the beginning, there literally were no days where I wasn’t there. It’s really hard to step away, have a boundary, not answer a phone call, do orders, answer an email.”
For that reason, plus continual staffing difficulties—an issue plaguing many businesses in the region—Gerber came to the decision to wrap up the Rosey’s chapter of their life. And by way of reflection on that chapter, Gerber had nothing but positive things to say.
“I feel unbelievably grateful for the friends and community that I’ve got here. People have been so kind and generous to us. Whether that was my friends who were sanding the floors for weeks on end, or our neighbors bringing us pastries every week. I have just been struck by people’s openness and generosity.”
In terms of what’s on the horizon for Gerber, they’re heading back to Chaseholm Farm. And while what they’re looking forward to most at the moment is a bit of rest and distance from managing a business, they hope to continue to do catering, pop-up food events, and maybe even bring the food cart back to life.
The biggest project for Gerber after Aug. 14, however, will be making peace with an ending, even if the journey itself was successful.
“We really want things that we love to last forever. But they don’t, and it’s okay that things end. It’s okay that things change,” Gerber said. “I’m really excited for the next folks that go into that space and get to try something out. And I’m really excited for Brit’s next adventure. But it’s bittersweet for sure.”
This article comes courtesy of The Millerton News.