LYNN — Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee Co. reopened its doors on Munroe Street last week after closing down for the winter months.
The store closed in March of 2020 when COVID-19 hit, but reopened a few months later in July for takeout only. This time around, the coffee shop — which doubles as a social initiative — is open for dine-in and takeout options.
Social enterprise manager Fredy Hincapie said the coffee shop closed for the winter months due to the low foot traffic.
“Not many people were coming in here because a lot of our regular customers are employees of businesses around the area,” Hincapie said. “People were working either hybrid — coming to the office once a week — or completely at home, so it made sense for us to temporarily close down.”
With the opening of the new Caldwell Apartments across the street, Hincapie said the cafe is ready to see an increase in customers between the new residents and people returning to the office.
Hincapie said he is happy to be able to offer their indoor space to customers again, adding that sacrificing the space when they were strictly offering takeout last summer was a tough decision to make, but was the safest option.
During the winter, Hincapie said they were able to take advantage of the break by increasing their presence on the Toast takeout app, planning a new setup for indoor dining that abides by the state’s COVID-19 guidelines, and brainstorming new menu ideas.
Hincapie and lead barista Marcus Detamphayvanh said they are both excited to be open again, and look forward to hopefully resuming some normal activities and events in the cafe — including live performances — during the summer.
Land of a Thousand Hills works with the nonprofit The Haven Project to offer job training to homeless young adult clients ages 17 to 24, giving them basic foundations on how to find and keep a job. This job-training program was able to continue through a collaboration with My Brother’s Table while the cafe was closed.
Detamphayvanh provided job training to Land of a Thousand Hills’ clients at My Brother’s Table where they assisted with making, packaging and distributing food.
Hincapie said they were able to help about 30 young adults with job training at My Brother’s Table in addition to continuing their meetings with a job coach to work on resumes, cover letters and job applications.
Hincapie said he was happy the cafe was able to continue its job training program throughout the pandemic while the cafe was closed for business.
“It also gave us the opportunity to hopefully continue building relationships with other local nonprofits like My Brother’s Table,” Hincapie said. “It was great. We were able to help those clients get a job in the community and keep those jobs.”
Land of a Thousand Hills adjusted their hours to Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The indoor space has bar seating, a community table for larger groups, and other socially-distanced tables.
Outdoor seating will also be available as the weather gets warmer, with at least four tables with umbrellas on the side of the building.
Allysha Dunnigan can be reached at [email protected]
