By Richard Kessin
Photographs by Bruce Frisch

Stefanie Gouey inside the Cafe

I take visitors from the city on walks through Barbour Woods or up Haystack until they are proud of their wilderness adventures and very hungry.  “Can you get lunch around here?” they ask skeptically. “Trust me,” I say as I walk with them to Station Place Café and introduce them to Stefanie Gouey. On a sunny day last summer, I was hiking with a vegetarian woman from Jerusalem. “Can you make a vegetarian lunch?” we asked. “Sure,” Gouey said. “Go sit outside and we’ll bring it out.” It was a treat – hummus, pita, olives, avocado and tomato salad and more, served with a view of Norfolk and Haystack Mountain. You can’t beat it.

In winter, the café becomes a mountain refuge for people escaping confinement and in search of conversation. The café is a confined space, with seating for a dozen people and it is wise to remember that this is not a fast food restaurant. It’s a slow food restaurant.  Each sandwich is constructed to specifications – “What kind of bread? What kind of mayo? How about avocado and tomato? Sure we roasted the turkey! Do you want a half-sandwich with potato-leek soup?” You can wait a little if there are a number of customers and it is not a good bet for restless children on a crowded day.

The food is delicious, well prepared and appealing. There are standard menu items and intriguing specials. Gouey buys her food locally – or from a special supplier in Hartford. Coffee comes Barrington Roasters in Lee, artisanal bread from Berkshire Mt. Bakery. The tomatoes are always superb. I have no idea where they come from.

Stefanie Gouey spent three years in France in the 70’s and 80’s and moved part time to Norfolk in 1987. She spent time in Italy eating and learning to cook. She had an eclectic career in finance and advertising, before retreating to Norfolk to open the Station Place Café six or seven years ago.

In addition to morning coffee, breakfast and lunch, Gouey also cooks take-out meals for Friday night. Pick them up at the café between 5 and 6 on Friday nights or 9-2 on Saturdays and your dinner problems are solved. The cost is $20/entrée.

Here is a recent Friday night dinner offering, with commentary by Gouey:

Roasted Chicken with Clementines & Arak – All the intense flavors lavished on the poor chicken (arak, mustard, fennel, clementines, brown sugar) somehow manage to come together in a sweetly comforting dish you will always want to come back to.  Served with Israeli cous-cous.  There is also a description of Arak and its potent properties. (Sign up for weekly emails on Friday offerings: stationplacecafe@gmail.com or 860 542 2555). Gouey also caters and organizes private dinner parties.

Stefanie Gouey at Station Place Cafe

The Station Place Café can be quiet on some days in the winter and while part of this slowness is a result of the    small community and the fierce winter, more people could be attracted with a website and a little advertising.  The ratings by out-of-town guests on Yelp are exceptional: (http://www.yelp.com/biz/station-place-cafe-norfolk). One critic, who was by no means the most effusive, wrote: Great little cafe! Stayed in the valley for three days and kept coming back here for lunch. Fantastic food and wonderful staff!! Soup and half sandwich is the way to go! Another reviewer wrote that Station Place Café is the “kind of place you want to find when you’re in a new area . . . . Locals are very lucky to have a place like this to visit every day.”  Indeed we are.