September 21, 2009
September 20, 2009
Join Marcy Gregoire again at the Cup and Top for a FREE, fun afternoon show!
An afternoon of music, movement, and lots of laughter! Come enjoy Marcy’s music, and let your kids play various instruments and take the stage with Marcy. Bring your kids, your friends’ kids, your grandparents, and don’t forget the camera!
August 18, 2009
Owner Helen Kahn was interviewed by WHMP’s Chris Collins this week – CISA’s 6th annual Restaurant Week.
Listen below to her interview, and then come on in to the cafe to taste the delicious – fresh, local! – goodies she praises on his show.
July 29, 2009
Cup and Top Cafe and Rythea Lee invite you to the official opening for the show of new paintings by Rythea Lee. In addition to an opportunity to view the paintings, Rythea will also facilitate a free Playful Art class at the opening.
Rythea’s show, “My Peeps,” will be at the Cup and Top from August 1st- September 30th.
Rythea Lee lives, breathes, and dreams ART. Her life’s work involves the marriage of healing and creativity as a force for changing the world. Utilizing many creative modalities including painting, dancing, singing, songwriting, writing, video, and theatre, Rythea has found transformation in her own life while also assisting and supporting others.
Rythea is an Inner Bonding therapist with a private practice for the past 10 years in Florence, MA. She is co-founder of the Zany Angels Dance Theatre Company, a local troupe that performs and teaches throughout the year.
Rythea recently wrote a new book entitled “Trauma into Truth: Gutsy Healing and Why It’s Worth it” which is for sale at Cup and Top Cafe and also at Amazon.com.
The paintings included in this show were painted from the simple joy of expression. Though her paintings are often whimsical and playful, Rythea has cultivated these qualities through hard won dedication and commitment to a life of healing. She has found in her most difficult and scary moments of memory, she could express, and this has anchored her into a daily practice of pleasure and joy. These paintings are a reflection of the salvation that comes from creative process and product.
Rythea welcomes your comments in her comment book, and invites you to answer the question, “what feelings, memories, hopes, pleasures, come to mind when you see my art?” Her most sincere wish is that her art will inspire you to make yours.
Learn more about Rythea and her work here.
July 25, 2009
Join Marcy Gregoire again at the Cup and Top for a FREE afternoon show!
An afternoon of music, movement, and lots of laughter! Come enjoy Marcy’s music, and let your kids play various instruments and take the stage with Marcy. Bring your kids, your friends’ kids, your grandparents, and don’t forget the camera!
July 23, 2009
The Cup and Top is often featured as a local hero, and we proudly display our yellow sign from CISA in our front window. Have you ever wondered where we get all of our fantastic local produce and other products from?
Wonder no more!
For your reference, below a list of some of the local providers we get our produce, coffee, teas, and other goodies from:
Year Round
(fair trade)
Seasonal
______________
*organic
June 18, 2009
(Click on image to read more)
Thank you Maureen Turner and Valley Kids!
April 18, 2008
Exciting news! The café is featured in the Valley Advocate’s “Best Of The Valley” guide (winners are here). We have been profiled as one of the “Green Heroes” of the Valley! It’s a wonderful article that details all of our local and green efforts, so we hope you’ll pick up a copy of this week’s Valley Advocate (and flip to page 25!).
Or, alternatively, just read on – the article is reproduced in full below.
Green Heroes: Cup and Top Café, Florence.
When Helen Kahn opened Florence’s Cup and Top a little more than two years ago, she had a clear vision of what a truly community-based café meant. “It was always the intention to make it as local as possible, using local foods and showcasing local artists and illustrators,” Kahn says. “I do it to support the people who are producing the art or the food, and for my customer base, because for the most part the customers who come into the café are interested in that sort of thing.”
A major component of the recent revitalization of Florence Center, the Cup and Top distinguishes itself as both family-friendly (check out the sweet kids’ playspace in the back of the café) and earth-friendly. That ranges from the basic – aggressive recycling of paper, glass, cans and plastic; discounts to coffee drinkers who bring in reusable travel mugs – to the more creative, like offering used coffee grounds to customers for their home composting and hosting a magazine swap, started by customer [and recent featured artist!] Leni Fried, that encourages people to bring in their old magazines rather than throw them away.
“The environment’s going to hell, and I don’t want to be part of the problem, Kahn says of her focus on reusing and recycling. “It just makes complete and obvious sense to me – I’m in a position where I can make small changes, so why wouldn’t I? You see how much waste there can be, especially in the restaurant industry, and I just wanted to reduce the stream as much as possible.”
The Cup and Top is part of a trend, especially evident in the Valley, of local businesses that make it a priority to support local farmers and food producers. A member of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, the café is one of 37 restaurants that CISA counts in its Local Hero program. The Cup and Top serves organic breads from Haydenville’s Bread Euphoria, hormone-free milk and cream from Hadley’s Mapleline Farm, eggs from Wendell’s Diemand Farms, bagels from Springfield’s Gus & Paul’s, dressings from Goshen’s Appalachian Naturals, and maple syrup from Dufresne’s Sugar House in Williamsburg. The café serves tea from Hatfield’s Tea Guys and fair-trade organic coffee from Orange’s Dean’s Beans. And in season, Kahn buys produce from local farms, farmers’ markets and farm stands.
Kahn’s focus on local doesn’t end with the menu; the Cup and Top turns its walls over to a rotating exhibit of works by local artists and hosts shows, for kids and adults, by local musicians. The café also sells CDs, books, and greeting cards by local artists and writers. “There’s such an enormous pool of talent in this area. What you see on the shelves is just the tip of the iceberg,” Kahn says.
Kahn appreciates that customers appreciate the Cup and Top’s local and green focus. “I’m very happy to see these values are shared by my customers,” she says. “I’m glad to see they take notice of this, and I hope they come to the café because they support it.”
