SARAH BORDEN – AUTHOR & PROPRIETOR OF CANTEAN COFFEE & TEA

Photo by Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media

By Ralph Beauchamp

I met Sarah Borden one evening while attending an event at her café, Cantean Coffee & Tea. The first thing I admired was her effervescent quality. The artist was Noah Guthrie and the room was packed. Noah sounded amazing and I could feel his amazing vibes cascading throughout the cozy venue. Cantean Coffee & Tea is small by most standards. It only holds 25 people but it’s perfect for the travelling troubadour seeking that special atmosphere. It definitely a jewel of a room that lovingly embraces everyone that plays there. There is a magical mystique to Cantean.

Sarah Borden opened Cantean after she migrated from NYC to the Spring Glen section of Hamden, CT. An accomplished author, she soon felt there was something missing in Spring Glen. She felt the need to create a nurturing space where the community could feel comfortable to sit, linger and converse freely. Speaking with Sarah, community was not just an idea but something quite tangible. She wanted to create a sense of community connection that could empower the neighborhood. That’s why Cantean was born.

Sarah Borden, through a series of friendships, began working with Bigger Beast Records and All Boats Rise Entertainment to offer a unique music series. On those evenings, Cantean transforms itself into an intimate listening room. Cantean has already hosted such luminaries as Kristen Ford and Chad Hollister. The space is perfect for the singer/songwriters who are travelling around the country looking for that venue where they can feel totally at ease while at the same time land up-close and personal with their audience. Cantean is that gem and Sarah Borden is the reason why.

Cantean Coffee & Tea is located at 1660 Whitney Ave. Hamden, CT

Sarah Borden was kind enough to speak with AMP for this informative interview.

AMP: What inspired you to open Cantean Coffee & Tea?

SARAH: I lived in Spring Glen and have since 2012. So, I always hoped someone would open a third space along the stretch where Cantean is now, specifically a third space with offerings besides coffee and pastries. I wanted somewhere groovy and welcoming I could send my middle-schoolers (in their twenties now) out for a sandwich, somewhere they could walk to. I grew up in New York City and hanging out in coffee shops with my pals was a huge part of my life.

What we referred to as a coffee shop back then is very different from the general understanding of coffee shop now. These 80s-era NYC coffee shops served basically diner food—a full breakfast menu, sandwiches, salads, fries, burgers, meatloaf, mashed potatoes—then also souvlaki, gyros, spaghetti—muffins, bagels, cookies, cake, and pie. There was very thin drip coffee and maybe you could get a cappuccino but a small one—no oversized cups and no lounge areas, just tables and frequently booths along one or two walls. The “coffee shop” in Seinfeld is along the lines of what I mean, though the Seinfeld one is cleaner and brighter and bigger.

By the time Friends aired, the early 90s manifestation of the coffee shop was live all over the city – couches, low tables, gold-rimmed mirrors, beautiful lattes in enormous cups, pastries and biscotti but generally nothing else. And that’s where the Friends hung out. Central Perk is actually pretty accurate, aside from the name (you wouldn’t name your West Village coffee shop Central Perk) and Rachel’s job, wouldn’t be a waitress.

For Cantean I wanted the utilitarian quality of the 80s coffee shop plus the lounge-like velvety jewel box vibe of those early 90s haunts, plus the gigantic lattes. So I guess the inspiration was, it was something I wanted and I eventually decided to take it on myself.

We’ve been operating under the label of coffee shop since opening in 2023, but now that Common Grounds is moving in across the street we’re rebranding as a café…which is actually a more accurate description of us. I lived in Paris for the summer when I was fifteen and discovered the European café which is similar to the 80s coffee shop in that there’s a full menu and only tables, no couches, but superior coffee and charm!

We’re an Anglo-Franco-American version. The common denominator among the two types of coffee shops and the café is that you can drop in anytime…as opposed to a full service restaurant where generally if you show up at 3:30 and order a cappuccino and linger with your laptop you’re kind of in the way.

AMP: You are also quite the creative. Can you expound on your past and current artistic endeavors?

SARAH: I’m also a author—of short stories and one novel. I no longer write short stories, or literary fiction per se, but I’m working on a literary mystery and I’m also shopping around a television script I adapted from a novel by Esther Forbes (Johnny Tremain, Paul Revere and the World He Lived In). I’ve taught composition and creative writing. I have no legit design skills but I love to create warm and colorful and interesting environments. Interior environments that is. I’m unfortunately at a complete loss around landscaping and curb appeal.

AMP: Cantean is not just a café but also a community oasis. How do you balance running your business with your community outreach?

SARAH: I guess the spot where community relations and running a business intersect…well, if I were better at social media I’d do better with both of them as getting the word out, achieving and maintaining visibility is a big part of the equation. I’m so glad to provide a safe space for middle schoolers and young teens to visit on their own. As Cantean employee Reggie pointed out, for kids that age to go out and be in a public yet enclosed space is another way for them to be in the world, away from their home selves and school selves…a separate opportunity to explore identity and work on social skills.

AMP: What has been the biggest surprise (positive or challenging) since launching the café?

SARAH: The biggest surprise and challenge: how complicated the technology has turned out to be. By technology I mean online technology. Older technology, mechanical items and systems, when something breaks or goes wrong it’s very stressful but the path to resolution is less mysterious. There’s someone within reach who knows the deal with it and can help if you put in the time and energy to track them down, get them over to the space or on the phone.

The challenge there is keeping track of it and making it happen…like at the end of S2 of The Bear when Carmy gets locked into the fridge after carrying around a scrap of paper scribbled with “Fridge Guy” and Fridge Guy’s number. But at least there IS a fridge guy. There’s an espresso machine guy, a dishwasher guy, etc.

With these huge online platforms there’s no fridge guy. I’m not a wiz at online technology by any means but in all other areas of my life I can usually get to where I need to be. With Cantean, however well, for example, I couldn’t get Uber Eats to work for almost a year. After speaking with multiple customer service reps and none of them knew what the problem was, though of course none would say so directly.

I finally got it to work by following a trail, a series of roundabouts, like driving in Massachusetts. It turned out that our POS system, Square, was set up as Square Basic on the store device, the iPad, instead of Square for Restaurants, how I’d set it up on my laptop.

An employee offered to set up the iPad for me and I said, yes please! They didn’t know to install for Square for Restaurants, they just went for the first thing they saw, and I didn’t realize it mattered because Square Basic worked for all our intents and purposes up until the Uber debacle. It turned out the store device had to be set up as Square for Restaurants in order to work with the Uber integration. One guy kept saying, “menus,” and that was a clue because S4R has menus and SB has categories.

AMP: You’ve partnered with Bigger Beast Records and All Boats Rise Entertainment in offering a unique music series. How did that all come about?

SARAH: The amazing Steve Rogers emceed the first year of the open mic. Then when he felt himself to be overcommitted he put me in touch with Bigger Beast, who launched their Songwriters Open Mic at Cantean in November 2024. Shortly after that Bigger Beast/All Boats Rise suggested the house concert series.

It’s going great! I’m thrilled to have live music here regularly and would have no idea how to make that happen myself. I used to love going to Café Sin-é in the East Village and many years later to the Outer Space in Hamden (connected to Space Ballroom when Steve ran it). Bigger Beast/All Boats Rise are so easy to work with and it’s been a lot of fun (and good for business).

AMP: How do you balance the daytime café ambiance with the energy of live entertainment?

SARAH: Drawing the velvet curtains around the door and over the windows a little goes a long way. Then we plug in the string lights, dim the overhead lights, put electric candles on the tables, and
voilà.

AMP: Can you share a favorite past live-music event at Cantean that practically resonated with you?

SARAH: Hiroya Tsukamoto. Just…very different and very beautiful.

AMP: What role does sustainability such as utilizing local sourcing play in how the café is run?

SARAH: Our supplier, Baldor Specialty Foods, is based in New York and Massachusetts and their offerings are almost exclusively local, and the exceptions are cheeses from France or Spain, that sort of thing. On their site you can click through and read about the producer, the farm, etc.—it’s a wonderful collection of the highest quality tri-state and New England area products. So they do the local sourcing for us!

However we do carry these gorgeous candles from Val Viola, a local artisan, and I’d like to carry more such local items. We also have a compost via Peels and Wheels. They are very reliable and the cost is the same as a second trash can, which we’d need if we didn’t have a compost, so easy decision!

AMP: Where do you see Cantean in three to five years?

SARAH: I’m too superstitious to answer that question but I will say it would be nice to have something besides a pit next door.

AMP: If someone asked you to describe the heart of Cantean in one sentence, what would it be?

SARAH: Not a proper sentence, but: Tea and sympathy, coffee and contemplation, cheer and whiskey!

The upcoming musical line-up is impressive with Abbie Gardner (11/20) and Bruce T. Carroll (11/21). Catch a show, have a coffee or drink a glass of wine. Cantean awaits!

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