Three new coffee cafes open in Middlebury Great art, great music, Great Falls Club

Author: Andrea M. LaRocca

The wooden walls are covered with every variation of art - from colorful photographs of California to white-washed paintings of Vermont winters to an oversized sculpture made of light-up electrical parts - and a mix-and-match of tables and bright green chairs litter the sloping floor. Help-yourself coffee and pastries, nightclub lighting and a small stage for musical acts complete the NYC-like scene of the new Great Falls Club, located in Frog Hollow alley.

The Middlebury club opened on March 1, 2005 as a place for artists to display their works and for musicians to share their talents. An association of about 30 artists and musicians, most of who are local, support the club in a fashion that is not exactly co-op but is simply communal. According to painter Doug Lazarus, who co-founded the club with artist Andrew Marx, the "club" status means that the Great Falls Club can avoid some of the exasperating and expensive state regulations that it would have to comply with if the club were a business.

"If this wasn't a club, then I couldn't do this -," said Lazarus, who then emptied a coffee-cup full of water onto the floor. "And we'd have to redo the floor," he said, laughing at how the water he threw slid down the aged and sloping wooden floor towards the door.

Because the Great Falls Club is a club, not a business, it cannot sell anything. Instead, it requires that everyone who visits the club pays a $3 membership fee, which Lazarus said "makes you a club member for the day, which means you can enjoy yourself here and help yourself to all the coffee, tea and pastries that you want." For the weekend musical performances, the charge is $7-10.

That laissez-faire, have-a-good-time approach is what the Great Falls Club is all about. "Middlebury is probably one of the dullest places I've visited in my life," said Lazarus about why he founded the club. "The College provides entertainment, but they have a fine hand of authority that takes the fun out of everything that they do. So we wanted to make a space for entertainment and fun."

According to Lazarus, the club is also an alternative to the frantic pace of modern life."There isn't any place to just hang out anymore," he said. "Everyone is always on the run, and coffee is always to go, in a cardboard cup. So one of the first things we decided was to not have any cardboard cups. You have to sit down and drink your coffee right here."

With its eclectic mix of an urban atmosphere in a rural setting, the Great Falls Club is just waiting to be discovered. "We're very much looking to encourage the College students to come down and join us," said Lazarus. "We're open to anything that sounds like fun." Anyone interested in performing at the Great Falls Club should contact Lazarus at 388-0239. And anyone looking for a place to relax with a cup of coffee should head down to Frog Hollow Alley. The club is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, with special hours for music shows.

The next show at the Great Falls Club is Friday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. The Steph Papas Experience and Megan Walsh will perform live.