Station Place is a short walk. On one side is the Norfolk Hub's building, where the Berkshire Country Store sold breakfast, deli sandwiches, and groceries until Sunday, October 18. Across from it stands the Royal Arcanum, where the Norfolk Pub used to be. A poster in its window, written in ornate script, reads "Opening Fall 2026 – Alfredo Taylor's Food & Grocery."
Both of these buildings have owners who live in town and are paying close attention, and that may be the most useful thing to understand about what happens next. Norfolk's village center lost two food businesses in under a year. The people now deciding what replaces them own the buildings.
The math behind a 2 p.m. close
Ryan Craig ran the Berkshire Country Store for a decade. He announced the closing on Facebook on September 23 and set the last day for October 31. Norfolk Now reported that the post drew hundreds of comments and plenty of farewell visits. In mid-October the store moved its final day up to Sunday, October 18, citing "unforeseen staffing shortages," according to CT Insider. Patch reported that doors would close at 2 p.m. that day.
Craig has been open about the numbers, and they explain a lot about how Station Place works. He told Norfolk Now he paid himself about $40,000 a year on sales that averaged $500,000 to $550,000. He also tried a second store in Canaan for about 18 months but found it hard to keep the two consistent. He had been quietly trying to sell the business for six to seven months and found very few qualified buyers.
The early closing time, which customers had grumbled about, came from the same math. In the town's September news item, Craig said the later hours he tried this summer could bring in as little as $40 an hour in sales, while it cost about $120 an hour to stay open. He also described the cost pressures that come with a small town at the end of a supply route:
"Everything that comes here comes by truck. With fuel prices up, everything costs more and, if I pass the cost along, how do you do that without upsetting people? The minimum wage has skyrocketed—it's going up again in January—so you hire fewer people and end up working more yourself."
That quote is from norfolkct.org. He added that a weekend could sell out of turkey in a few hours, or the turkey could sit until it had to be thrown away. His store was profitable, but only barely, and it ran on daytime trade in a town where traffic rises and falls with the seasons.
Two owners, facing each other
All of this is why it matters who holds the keys on both sides of the street.
The Norfolk Hub, which used to be the Norfolk Foundation, owns the building the Berkshire store occupied. Michael Selleck chairs the Hub's board. He told Norfolk Now that the space "may not be vacant for long" and that an announcement could come in the near future. "We hope to find someone equally as good as Ryan," he said, calling the store "a tentpole in downtown Norfolk." Selleck also said the Hub had worked with Craig for several months on the transition, after Craig's lease came up for renewal in June and he asked for an extension.
Across the street, American Folk & Heritage bought the Royal Arcanum from the Norfolk Hub about a year ago. The company was founded by brothers Aaron and Dev Aujla and Aaron's wife, Emily Adams Bode Aujla, and all three live in Norfolk. Alfredo Taylor's will go into the former Norfolk Pub space, which has been heavily renovated over the past several months. "We are looking to create something unique, something that will be fitting for this space and the Town of Norfolk," Aaron Aujla told Norfolk Now.
The Royal Arcanum is changing in other ways too. Les Renards & Co., the bookshop that opened in the building, is moving across the street into newly renovated space beside the Hub. Ruthann Olssen Interior Arts & Design has left its ground-floor space and is moving to Canaan. Back in July, Norfolk Now reported that Les Renards owner Tricia Deans expected the renovation to take several months. Aaron Aujla, the bookstore's landlord at the time, did the design.
So the bookstore is crossing toward the Hub's side, and the grocery that used to sit there is being replaced by a new one on the Royal Arcanum's side. Each owner now has a ground-floor space to fill, and each has said publicly that it wants something that suits the town.
How the week looks now
The Berkshire store sold groceries, breakfast, and deli food all in one place, and nothing on Station Place does all of that right now. What's left divides the day roughly in half. Daytime is on one side of Station Place, and dinner is out on Route 44.
Mornings and lunch. Icebox Cafe at 10 Station Place serves breakfast and lunch Wednesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Its menu includes coffee and tea, pastries, oatmeal, sandwiches, soup, and breads. The town directory lists it as closed Tuesdays, with seasonal Monday hours.
Dinner. Infinity Hall's Norfolk Bistro at 20 Greenwoods Road West, on Route 44, serves Wednesday through Sunday from 5 to 9 p.m. Happy hour runs 5 to 6, and Wednesday is trivia night. The Bistro's reservation page has the details. The Bistro reopened this summer after the Pub closed. Norfolk Now reported that it opened slightly ahead of schedule with Chef Tyler Morgan in the kitchen and that his onion rings already had a following. The town's September item described the Bistro as doing a lively nighttime business.
Wine and beer. Mountain Spirits at Station Place carries wine, spirits, and cold beer, and the town lists it as open every day. The town's restaurant page still shows the Berkshire Country Store as open, but that listing was written before the closing.
Saturday produce, for two more weeks. The Norfolk Farmers Market runs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and its 2026 season ends October 31, according to its CT Grown listing. No winter dates are listed.
Icebox and the Bistro both run Wednesday through Sunday. Icebox closes on Tuesdays, and the Bistro doesn't serve Monday or Tuesday. Early in the week, the in-town choices come down to Icebox's seasonal Monday hours and the liquor store. After October 31, nothing in the village sells groceries at all until something opens on Station Place.
What's still pending
Three things will determine what Station Place looks like by winter, and as of mid-October none has a date.
- Alfredo Taylor's Food & Grocery. Aujla told Norfolk Now in early October that no firm opening date had been set. The timing depends on two things, delivery of major equipment and the permits needed to run the business. More details will come once a date is set.
- The former Berkshire space. The Norfolk Hub hasn't named a new tenant. Selleck's remark that an announcement could come "in the near future" is the most recent public word.
- Les Renards & Co. The move into the space beside the Hub has been announced, but no reopening date has been published.
Norfolk has been through a stretch like this before. In July, Norfolk Now described the village center as "abuzz with change" about six months after the Pub closed. The Pub's windows were papered over, and the Bistro had just come back five nights a week. The same story mentioned a July 8 workshop at the Norfolk Hub called "Building Interest in Main Street," funded by a grant from the Northwest Council of Governments. The town's own description of Craig's plans shows how long people have been working on this problem. He originally hoped to put a store like his in every Northwest Corner town, and rising costs kept getting in the way. Whoever opens the next grocery on Station Place will face the same delivery trucks, and the same rise and fall of seasonal traffic, in a space whose landlord is the Norfolk Hub or American Folk & Heritage.
If you own property in Norfolk or anywhere in the Northwest Corner, a village center with a grocery, a café, and a dinner spot is part of everyday life. When you want to talk through what changes like these mean for a house you're keeping, selling, or thinking about buying, The Legacy Team is glad to share what we're seeing from town to town. Get Expert Guidance.