Katonah's Reading Room Shuttered By Coronavirus Crisis

KATONAH, NY — After weeks of trying to hold things together during the new coronavirus crisis, Pete and Gretchen Menzies, owners and operators of the Reading Room in Katonah on Edgemont Road decided to shut their business down. In a letter to the community on the business' website, the Menzies said they initially thought they would be able to get through the crisis after they decided to close March 13 to protect their staff.

Pete Menzies said he figured long-awaited projects could be completed, but as the news grew more dire, it was obvious he couldn't keep asking his employees to come to work.

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He and his wife called each employee March 20 and laid them off, calling it a furlough. The employees were encouraged to go on unemployment and were promised the cafe would make up any difference they would lose by not working, which it did for six weeks.

They got a Small Business Administration disaster loan and a PPP loan, and developed a plan to restaff and reopen.

Unfortunately, the couple couldn't get the numbers to work even with the loans.

"Coronavirus destroyed the Katonah Reading Room. It was slow and brutal, a piercing of the heart, and it hurt more than you can imagine," they said on the webpage.

"Our business was going to die," Menzies said, adding that he couldn't ask his employees to come back to work under unsafe conditions.

"Most were making more with unemployment," he said. "They were better off staying home and safe with their families."

While they are closing the Reading Room, they are hoping Little Joe's, their bookstore and coffee shop at 25 Katonah Avenue, will survive and can be built on for something new.

"This experience has been heartbreaking," Menzies said.

He said they aren't going anywhere and they love Katonah.

"Count on this though," Menzies said, "we're going to heal. Someday, we will pry the shutters open, and welcome you and the sunshine back inside the Reading Room."

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