Montpelier chocolate maker, coffee shop still working to rebound after summer floods

This profile of Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Co. is the latest in a series by the Burlington Free Press on Montpelier restaurants as they reopen following flooding that devastated Vermont’s capital city in July. What has the experience been like? What does the future hold?

MONTPELIER ― A shop that sells coffee and its own chocolate confections went down for the count after the floods July 10 before reopening almost exactly two months later. The rebuilding of the business, however, is ongoing.

What happened during the flooding?

Rauli Fernandez, a co-owner of the employee-owned Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Co., was in the shop around 3 p.m. Monday, July 10, as floodwaters began approaching. Other employees went home, but he stayed behind to move some material above the potential flood level.

“I saw what was coming,” he said. He looked out the window onto Main Street, where his car was parked, and couldn’t see the pavement beneath the floodwaters. He went outside, took a picture showing all the water on the street and drove off to his Court Street home.

Fernandez stayed home the next day while floodwaters remained high and people kayaked down the city’s streets. He watched what was happening at Rabble-Rouser via a security-camera system he had access to at home. He could see that a back room was swamped by about two-and-a-half feet of water.

“Everything was floating – fridges, bins, everything,” Fernandez said. That meant the building’s basement, which contained cardboard boxes, a washer/dryer and the heating system, was also flooded.

Fernandez returned to the shop two days after the flood. The remaining water was brown, with rainbow coloring from gasoline. He smelled gas mixed with sewage. As shopkeepers tossed damaged items onto the street, the odor of moisture and garbage began taking root in downtown, lasting for weeks. The sidewalks, he said, became a narrow hallway of junk.

Fernandez began to think through all the work that would lie ahead. “You didn’t know what repairs you needed to do,” he said.

How has the recovery gone?

Like many downtown business owners, Fernandez credits the community organization Montpelier Alive, which set up a tent down Main Street that included a tool library for shopkeepers to borrow equipment to help them tear down and rebuild. He said he would ask Montpelier Alive for 20 volunteers to, say, help clear out the basement, and those volunteers would arrive in an hour.

Some items were not salvageable. A player piano that sat in the corner near the front window since the shop opened in 2019 had been immersed in water, leaving the keys “like cement,” according to Fernandez. He and co-workers took the instrument out to the sidewalk, where it collapsed in a heap. Two $4,000 couches could not be saved.

“They were pretty comfy,” Fernandez said.

Thousands of dollars of equipment that made the shop go was also destroyed. Stoves, refrigerators, motors for coffee machines and a dishwasher were all irreparably damaged. Rabble-Rouser undertook a crowdfunding campaign, seeking $50,000 to alleviate the cost of replacing all that was lost. The floors and walls were mostly OK after a bit of repair and intense cleaning.

Rabble-Rouser reopened its café Sept. 11, according to co-owner Joy Crossett. That was primarily to sell coffee; with chocolate production delayed by the flood and resulting worker shortage, Crossett said it took another two weeks for Rabble-Rouser to begin selling chocolates again.

Fernandez said business was good while Rabble-Rouser was one of the few places in town that sold coffee. (Capitol Grounds and Bohemian Bakery have since reopened as well.) “Since November (began) it’s a little slower,” according to Crossett.

Customers have been very patient, according to Fernandez, urging Rabble-Rouser to take its time to ship chocolate that they’ve ordered.

“The community has been very supportive of all the businesses,” he said.

What does the future hold?

Rabble-Rouser has struggled to rebuild staffing after being shut down for two months, according to Fernandez. He said the business remains committed to downtown Montpelier.

“We’re still recovering in a way. We still have to get things back like they were before,” Fernandez said. “We’ll just keep working until we get to the peak.”

Hours and information

Rabble-Rouser Chocolates & Craft Co., 64 Main St., Montpelier. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. (802) 225-6227, www.rabblerouser.net

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Rabble-Rouser Chocolate & Craft Co. rebuilds after Montpelier floods