By Colleen Gundlach

The Covid pandemic inflicted devastation on many business owners, particularly those of small businesses. From the lockdown last year to unemployment issues this year, these companies have been hard hit. One local entrepreneur is an exception, though. Winsted resident Carrie Stetson took the Covid lemons and turned them into lemonade.

Stetson had wanted to be a cook for as long as she can remember. As a young adult, she accepted a position in the food service division at Highland Acres Extend-A-Care in Winsted. It was there that she fell in love with the culinary world. “I had the best teachers,” she says. “The staff of chefs at Highland Acres was amazing and they took the time to teach me all they knew.” The kitchen staff was so devoted that there was very little employee turnover. “After 23 years working there, I was still the new girl.”

Later, when Geer Village in Canaan decided to open a restaurant on their campus, Stetson joined that staff and became the manager. Her job was to launch the restaurant and to run it for the Geer organization. Geer owned it, and Stetson operated it for them. “It was a safe job, with a regular wage and benefits.” 

The entrepreneur in her wouldn’t be silenced, though, and soon Stetson was knocking on the office door of Geer administrator Kevin O’Connor. Urged on by Geer Food Service Director Dawn Sanderson, Stetson boldly asked if he would allow her to own the restaurant and run it as her own. And own it she did. In 2017, she became the proud owner of Railway Café, located on the first floor of the Geer Village building.

For a few years, the café thrived. Then Covid hit. Geer Village closed its doors to visitors, and that meant no customers for the Railway Café. No customers meant no café. Each day without work, Stetson and her friend would take long walks around Winsted, and each day they strolled by an empty storefront next to F. J. Richards Jewelers on Main Street. “I told my friend that that building would make the cutest café. She thought I was crazy, but I approached Fred Richards, the landlord, and he was very supportive,” she says. In October 2020, Stetson signed a lease and made plans to move the Railway Café to Winsted.

Stetson had a vision of what she would do with the interestingly shaped building and immediately began working on making it reality. She, along with her husband and three children, created a unique design, which combines the feel of a train station with the comfort of a neighborhood ice cream shop. “I drew my inspiration from the former Catnip Mouse Tea room [in Riverton, Conn.],” she says. “I wanted to be able to serve creative soups and sandwiches, which I think I have done here in Winsted.”

The Railway Café does not serve any fried foods. There is no grill and no griddle, only a stove and convection ovens. Everything is homemade. Even the grilled cheese sandwiches are baked in the oven. For frying eggs, they use induction hot plates. Their specialty for breakfast is egg bowls, with hash browns and choice of meat, topped by egg and toast. Everything is fresh from the oven. For lunch, one can try one of Stetson’s homemade soups, a variety of crispy salads or a creative sandwich, such as a stuffed BLT, a mouth-watering creation of crisp applewood bacon, romaine and tomatoes on toasted white country bread with bleu cheese aioli—just one of many of Stetson’s wonders.

This is truly a family business, with Stetson as the cook and her two daughters serving. “My husband even pitches in to do the dishes,” she says. But her son manages a side of the business that Stetson hopes to make better known—the ice cream parlor. Entering the Railway Café, visitors are surprised to find a quaint, old-fashioned ice cream parlor to the left, with the café itself to the right. The ice cream parlor has indoor seating and a walk-up ice cream freezer, where one can choose from 26 different flavors of Gifford’s ice cream, including seasonal flavors such as pumpkin spice and pumpkin praline. Stetson reports that she had to go through an application process to be granted the rights to sell Gifford’s products. “Once we were approved as a Gifford store, the company sent the ‘Scoop instructor’ to visit us. It was kind of fun.” Visitors to the ice cream parlor can sit inside and enjoy the frozen treats or get comfy in an outdoor chair or sturdy bench inside the white picket fence. 

Stetson admits that it was a huge leap of faith to take on the new business in Winsted. “I did it for my kids, so they could see that if you have faith in yourself, you can be your own boss and succeed. I think all business owners wonder if they are doing it right. Are we giving customers what they want? But then I look around on a busy Sunday morning and know that this is right. It’s still very emotional for me to look out and see the happy customers at my café.”

Railway Café is located at 580 Main Street in Winsted and is open Wednesday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Breakfast is served all day. The ice cream parlor is open Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

And they serve lemonade.