Photo by Howard Owens
Harvester Center’s east side business incubator was bustling at one point about a year ago -- with three new food places, a children's entertainment venue and a community workout place -- marked now by vacancies.
Vianiliz “Vee” Echevarria Rivera and her mother, Elizabeth, had brought authentic Puerto Rican food to Batavia with Linda Borinqueña, which meant “a beautiful Puerto Rico,” a takeout restaurant, alongside entrepreneur Rob Credi’s Xavmen Ramen takeout place and adjacent to Windy Brew, a second location for the craft brewer based in Strykersville.
Linda Borinqueña and Xavmen Ramen were housed under the umbrella of The Crapshoot Kitchen & Commissary, a culinary space available for rent owned by Credi. Although all three places were as ideally situated as can be in that monstrous building — street level — one by one they each have closed, or are soon to be closing.
Credi owns the popular Pub Coffee Hub down on the north end of the street, and The Crapshoot Commissary, a space for rent by small food business owners looking to open a takeout restaurant and/or a food truck delivery or catering business, toward the south. He is also business manager for the future Shush Wine Bar LLC on Jackson Street in downtown Batavia.
Rivera took the opportunity to follow her dream for awhile with the Puerto Rican takeout place, and received rave reviews upon opening, she said, but eventually opted to close it down. Anyone who has ever owned and operated a food business will tell you that it becomes a 24/7 grind that requires staff, time and energy to maintain.
Although Windy Brew opened its doors in August 2023 with “pride and excitement about the future,” a more recent decision was made, the owners said on their social media site.
“While feedback and reviews from the community were strong from the start, it was a challenge to gain a foothold and draw in the volume of patronage that is necessary to sustain a business. That is why we have made the difficult decision to close Windy Brew Batavia. Our last day of operation will be October 13th,” the post stated.
Those three businesses, plus House of Bounce and The Brick, which each moved (The Brick is now Flex Space) to downtown locations this year, have left gaps at Harvester Center.
A Harvester tenant said that the site at 56 Harvester Ave. is also missing a property manager, since he is no longer serving in that position.
