Avenue Bread

The James Street cafe sits in a room Sunnyland already knew. Our House Deli fed the neighborhood here until 2008, and when Avenue Bread took the space that same year, Jamie Smeall was working the front of house. She had started at Our House in 2003. In January 2024 she and Johnny Macfarlane, both longtime employees, bought the business from John and Wendy DeFreest, and about ten Our House regulars still come in every week.

Avenue Bread began on Railroad Avenue in 1995 and there are four cafes now. The Eggenue is the signature, and the country version stacks a sausage patty with tomato, red onion and cheese between two toasted English muffins. Sandwiches, grinders and salads fill out the rest, and the pastry case comes from Avenue Bakery, now its own company under another longtime employee, Robin Shrestha.

Each cafe doubles as a gallery for local artists. James Street opens at half past six.