One More Cup of Coffee

Wondering if walls could talk is unnecessary in downtown Saratoga’s Caffè Lena

Story and photos by Gabrielle Bilik

Newspapers dating back to the 1960s are visible through the wall of decorative shutters. The light that comes through in slits illuminates the two-inch slices of history. The photographs on the walls speak for themselves, and the small verses and graffiti written in Sharpie on the bathroom walls display blurbs from the thousands of people that have filtered in and out of the place since its opening in the 1960s. Caffè Lena is the oldest continually running coffee house in the United States.

Veer from Broadway in downtown Saratoga and head down Phila Street, and there is a steep hill.  This is where the hole-in-the-wall shops are: a bar, a comic book store, and then the slender wooden doors to Caffè Lena. Such a “big” place, yet it seems easy for people that are walking, biking, laughing, and strolling down Saratoga’s main drag to miss it. The door is made up of two gigantic wooden panels, locked together by a big black buckle.

The hall is coated with black-and-white photographs of famous folk musicians, barely visible in the dim light.  Going up the stairs reveals blue walls adorned with painted-on instruments and music notes. Standing at the top of the stairs, your eyes adjusting slowly to the semi-darkness, the main room--the size of someone’s attic--comes into focus. To the left are the bathrooms, the kitchen, and some offices. Straight ahead are seats and a tiny stage, and to the left of the stage are more chairs. The floors are a bit uneven, as in most old buildings.  The chairs are black, and the tables are a pale, very polished wood. The walls are maroon. It’s a cozy, warm space.

The tables in Caffè Lena are nearly identical, each with a clear plastic holder encasing either a photograph of Bob Dylan or a page of quotes from the famous artists that have passed through. Yet there are subtle differences that make them unique. It is one such difference that makes the table that Bob Dylan sat at recognizable. There is an extra ring of wood on the bottom side of the table.

"You can feel the 50 years of everybody that came through the place. It’s in the walls in the spirit of the place..."

Tonight, a young man sitting at the Bob Dylan table happens to be wearing a hat very similar to that of the iconic cap Dylan wears in the pictures of him in Caffè Lena, and the time the photo was taken doesn’t feel so far away.

The room is dim, and the smell of cappuccino fills the space. String lights are draped along the ceiling, casting a cozy amber glow. Catie Curtis, a popular folk singer, is playing.  Opening act Elana Arian has joined Curtis on the stage to play the fiddle. She also harmonizes on vocals. The symphony of sounds and history filter through the audience and drift through the windows, gently landing on the streets below.

“You can feel the 50 years of everybody that came through the place. It’s in the walls, and in the spirit of the place,” says Brendan Hogan, the young musician in the Bob Dylan hat.

Caffè Lena was a station for many of the artists of the 1960s American Folk Revival.  The movement was a revival strongly influenced by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie, but was continued by artists such as Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez. Caffè Lena encompasses the spirit of folk, and continues the tradition of passing on stories through music and word of mouth; all sub-stories and histories recapitulating through the framework.

Caffè Lena is named after Lena Spencer. Lena and her husband, Bill Spencer, bought it in 1960. Bill Spencer taught at Skidmore College. They had plans to run the establishment for a few years, and eventually move to Europe.

“The way they found music was Lena and Bill would go to Greenwich Village and Boston to see who was up and coming. They’d convince them to come to this little back water of a place. So that’s how Caffè Lena came on the map and became one of those places you had to play. And it still is,” says Sarah Craig, executive director of Caffè Lena.

Bringing big name acts to such a new venue proved easy for the Spencers.

"There’s an intimacy to the performance. World class quality, but it’s in a living room setting, and it’s unusual..."

“Bill Spencer had an intense, colorful personality,” Craig says. “Jackie Washington said that he could sell refrigerators to Eskimos.” Jackie Washington was a big name at the time; it’s a testament to Bill’s persuasion that he got a big name like that to play at this tiny, unknown stage.

The Caffè ended up becoming wildly successful, but the couple that founded it did not find the same fortune their coffee houses did. After a year of running the Caffè together, Bill Spencer left Lena for a student he had been having an affair with. The marriage ended, and Lena kept the café running until she died in 1989. She never remarried. Instead, she devoted her time to Caffè Lena, and came into her own as a powerful woman in the music world.  

“She gave people opportunities and took care of them in a way that was extraordinary,” Craig says. “She didn’t book people until they were really ready, and then she took care of them until they got there. At any given time, she had fifteen rooms of traveling musicians in her home.”

Joseph Deuel is the cafe’s photographer, and he mans the soundboard during performances. He has been coming to Caffè Lena for thirty years, and knew Lena Spencer well.

“She was a lot of high drama. She was a total character,” Deuel recalls affectionately. “People came expecting this hippie earth mother, and they’d get here and see her sitting on the piano smoking Pal Malls and playing scrabble throughout the shows. She was pretty gruff. She had one of those personalities.”

Caffè Lena is notorious for its past, but at present, it is gaining new recognition. Caffè Lena is now a non-profit organization and has been since Lena’s passing in 1989. It was a rough transition at first, and it has passed through many hands, but now Caffè Lena runs smoothly under a volunteer board of directors, and Craig’s supervision and direction.

“It was struggling for a while to find a new identity without her. I’ve enjoyed occupying her niche. I think of this as her place really, and I notice that I have quite a different temperament. I don’t think I would have had the same determination to create this place, but I certainly have the determination to keep it going,” Craig says.

They hold more than 400 events per year, making just enough money to pay the artists and the bills. There is a very small paid staff for things like sound, bookkeeping, a baker, and a janitor, but without donations from their members, they would be short $35,000.

“It’s a bare bones operation,” Craig says. “We pinch pennies.”

Pennies that will be well spent. Caffè Lena is looking to renovate some things, all while maintaining its essence. “We’re going to preserve the flavor of the listening room, but we need an elevator and handicap-accessible restrooms. It’s an old building, so we need to maintain the safety of the structure,” says board member Stanley McGaughey. “We’re hoping that the experience will be enhanced by the added safety, and we hope to maintain the café’s character.”

Caffè Lena’s character is what brings so many people and artists to it, but according to eight-year volunteer Ed Borzon, today's fans shouldn’t just be celebrating its past.

“Caffè Lena is still bringing fresh music to the scene. It’s not just the 50th year we should be celebrating. We shouldn’t just love Caffè Lena for the old. Back then, they brought innovative music to this stage, and now it's carrying on that tradition,” Borzon says. “People come here looking for a little taste of history, but instead they walk out with an amazing musical experience.”

“We pinch pennies”

“A lot of people come here for nostalgia. They’re looking to see an authentic 60s café,” Craig agrees. “They want to see where Bob Dylan played. They walk away captivated by the performance. There’s an intimacy to the performance. World class quality, but it’s in a living room setting, and it’s unusual.”

Tonight’s performance is indeed a surprising musical experience. Catie Curtis is a well-known artist, and her lyrics aren’t getting muffled over some giant speaker hundreds of yards away in an impersonal and crowded stadium.  The lyrics are audible, and there is artist-audience interaction. It is a shared experience between everyone in the room.

The audience in the room is diverse. Young people, older people, and everyone in between, all looking toward the stage and laughing together. There is some foot bobbing, but nothing too rowdy. Everyone seems relaxed and content, with genuine smiles imprinted on their faces.

“Caffè Lena serves as a bridge between the generations,” reads a quote from Arlo Guthrie on the plastic paper holder at the center of the table.

Sitting at the tables, and sipping from the same cups as many have before, the disconnects between the past and present are linked.  The people in this room will write on the walls and look at the photos, taking and leaving a little bit with them. The history that Caffè Lena has to offer, and the traces of their own that they leave behind, are intrinsically intertwined into one more folksong.

Have you ever been to Caffe Lena?

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