My hometown of Norfolk, CT borders Massachusetts.  A quick ten minute car ride north on the back road out-of-town puts you in Southfield, MA.  A town much smaller then Norfolk with very little going on. Growing up as we drove through on our way to Great Barrington, we would pass an old country store with an old style gas pump outside.  I don’t ever remember going into the place but I do remember it looking like a scene from my favorite movie, Fried Green Tomatoes.  In the beginning of the movie Kathy Bates’s character and her husband are lost and stumble upon the abandoned town of  Whistle-Stop.  What I love is that all these years later the store has been transformed into something much more up scale and refined (no gas pump outside) and it still reminds me of the movie.  The inside of the Southfield Store brings me right into the Whistle-Stop Cafe!!!

Bryan and I have become accustom to the ritual of visiting the Southfield Store whenever we are home for a visit.  We can usually convince my mom (without much work) to come along for breakfast.  Although the word “store” would imply more of a market the space has been transformed into more of a cafe/bakery.  They serve excellent coffee and espresso drinks along with baked goods and sandwiches.  They even serve dinner Thursday through Sunday night, unfortunately we haven’t made it in for that.

The Southfield Store has done a few things really well.  The first being aesthetics, mismatched antique tables and chairs invite you to sit with a paper and hot cup of coffee.  Fresh flowers and local photography help bring a cool and cozy feeling to the airy space.  The ceiling fans, and old walk- in fridge with the wooden door are what remind me of the Whistle – Stop Cafe.  They also have very good coffee along with fresh baked goodies.  Mom is a fan of their ginger scones while I am partial to the homemade granola.  Bryan usually goes for the breakfast sandwich, also delicious.  However, this is where the improvement could come in – the service.  While the people working there are very nice and fairly accommodating to requests and inquiries there is always a sense of chaos and a frantic inability to keep things organized.  This is of course most evident during a busy lunch hour.  Having worked at a place in which taking orders and cranking out sandwiches was done with machine like qualities of efficiency and speed (Flour), this is usually a complaint of mine.

With that said, we still plan on visiting frequently.  Most recently we were able to share our place with Bryan’s parents who were visiting from Alabama.  I didn’t hear any complaints from them who are true connoisseurs of both coffee and scones!!!!