PEABODY — After nearly a decade, Northeast Arc’s Breaking Grounds Café, located at 67 Main St., will be closing on Aug. 1 due to financial concerns.
“This was not an easy decision, but closing the café is the right move for the financial health of our organization as we face rising costs and uncertain state and federal funding,” Northeast Arc President and CEO Jo Ann Simons said. “Closing Breaking Grounds will allow Northeast Arc to direct all of our resources toward our core mission of helping people with disabilities and autism live as fully included members of their communities.”
Operated by Northeast Arc since 2016, Breaking Grounds paired coffee and community with a mission to provide job-training opportunities for adults with disabilities. Over the years, it became known as much for its inviting atmosphere as its coffee.
Although the café’s closing, Northeast Arc’s employment programs for adults with disabilities will continue. Simons said future participants will receive workplace training through the organization’s programs at Parcels in Danvers and Amazing Pizza and More in Salem. All existing Breaking Grounds employees will have the opportunity to apply for other positions within Northeast Arc.
Northeast Arc will continue using the Main Street space for other programs and as a meeting and event space for the duration of its lease, which has two years remaining.
The announcement has left many patrons and neighboring business owners mourning a place they say was never just about coffee.
Heather MacLean, who lives around the corner from the café, said Breaking Grounds quickly became part of her daily routine after moving to Peabody three years ago. When she tore ligaments in her foot last winter and couldn’t drive, she said it was the café’s community that stepped in.
“The patrons and baristas came to my rescue,” she said. “They walked my dogs. They brought me things. They brought my groceries up for me.”
She added, “There’s nowhere in Peabody that replaces this.”
Just down Main Street, Olio owner Sarah Narcus said she will definitely miss her iced vanilla lattes, but she also understands that times are tough right now.
“We are living in a very challenging and uncertain economic climate. … I know the folks at Northeast Arc; I know the folks at Breaking Grounds, and they really put their best effort for nine years to keep that coffee shop open,” Narcus said.
She routinely sent wedding guests, photographers, and vendors there before events at Olio. Narcus emphasized that people came back to Breaking Grounds because of the atmosphere, highlighting that the café was a “downtown anchor,” a destination that people will travel from nearby towns to visit because it’s special.
“You went for the community element,” she said. “That is what I will miss the most.”
For Neil Papamechail, who is autistic, the café also represented an inclusive space where neurodivergent people are not just welcomed; they are appreciated, staffed, and embraced.
“To be autistic and to be able to work in that space and not have to mask and to be part of society, even if it’s just in that little microcosm, is so empowering,” he said.
He added, “We can do just as much as neurotypical people. We can process the same things. We just process them in a different way and at a different speed.”
Ward 2 Councilor Wendy Lattof said the café became a fixture of Peabody Square over its nine years on Main Street.
“For nine years, it has been more than a café — it has been a welcoming gathering place and a meaningful example of inclusion in our downtown. … Breaking Grounds will be greatly missed as a place where new friends and old could come together while supporting Northeast Arc’s greater mission,” Lattof said.
The coffee may stop pouring after July 31, but many patrons say the friendships, opportunities, and community fostered inside Breaking Grounds will endure.
