Co-owner Doni Cain lights candles to illuminate the interior of Foxy’s, a new cafe-restaurant-bar in Barre on Tuesday, December 17. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerHow would Foxy’s co-owner describe the feel of their newest addition to Barre’s downtown nightlife?“Eclectic, for sure,” said Liv Dunton. Like if reputedly queer poet Emily Dickinson had a “saloon.” Or perhaps “your gay grandmother’s living room” with a “goth-y” twist. Wedged between a brick building and a vacant storefront, the new Foxy’s is located in one of Barre’s oldest buildings, the Wheelock House. Built in 1871 as a law office, the building has a distinct red facade with Victorian trim. On a mid-December visit, a banner saying “protect trans kids” hung out front. Inside, Foxy’s has wood floors and dim, warm lighting. Behind its wide counter are both an espresso machine and a liquor display, reflecting another eclectic aspect of Foxy’s: The owners plan to operate it as a cafe and grab-and-go lunch spot as well as a bar and dinnertime restaurant. An all-day operating schedule is nothing new for Dunton and co-owner Doni Cain. In 2021, the two opened Fox Market, a combination market, bar and limited meal spot, along Route 2 in East Montpelier. It also became the first place in Vermont to call itself a “queer bar” after a 15-year drought of LGBTQ+ bar options in the Green Mountain State. In early 2022, the two hatched a new plan: to expand the “Fox” enterprise into downtown Barre with a stronger emphasis on food options and a cocktail bar.That decision launched a nearly three-year journey of planning, renovations, floods and a brief real estate battle. But Dunton said becoming a part of the Barre community was worth the struggle. “I pretty regularly talk to people who are moving, people who are excited about affordable housing in Barre, who are excited about being a part of this community that really feels like it’s shifting towards something really inviting for young families, queer families, queer folks,” Dunton said. Foxy’s is not alone. A half-dozen new small businesses have opened in downtown Barre in the past year alone, according to Tracie Lewis, executive director of the Barre Partnership. “We have just been quietly growing,” Lewis said. From flooding to Foxy’s The Wheelock House has gone through several iterations since its beginnings as a law office. It also served as the headquarters for the Granite Savings Bank and Trust Company and the Barre Electric Company.By the time Dunton and Cain considered purchasing the space, it had landed in the hands of the city of Barre, which had allowed the Barre Partnership to occupy it. When the pair put in an offer, a group of investors countered on behalf of the Barre Partnership. The City Council meeting to decide on the sale in April 2023 drew dozens of Fox Market supporters who argued that a new bar would attract a young, fresh crowd. The council voted 7-2 to sell the building to Foxy’s. Before the property was transferred over to Dunton and Cain, they faced another setback. The building’s basement flooded with the rest of Barre’s downtown in the July 2023 storm. “You opened the door to the basement and water was pretty much right at your feet,” Dunton said. It flooded twice more, in winter 2023 and in July 2024.Dunton said the pair has moved pretty much everything out of the basement now. While they expect it to flood again in the future, they also expect clean up to be relatively hassle-free. Alongside flood repairs were the more typical struggles of new business owners — renovating the space to their liking, finding staff members and, of course, money. After applying for a loan from the Vermont Community Loan Fund, “we came back to them and said, ‘We actually need about twice the amount we asked for,’” Dunton said. “And they just said, ‘Whatever it takes. We’re gonna figure this out for you.’”The pair also held a Foxy’s fundraising “Gay-la” and a small pride party in June before launching the business with regular hours earlier this month. The space offers coffee, pastries and grab-and-go meals from morning to mid-afternoon before transitioning to a dinner menu around 4 p.m. with an emphasis on fresh, local and seasonal offerings. Dunton said they were excited to get to know people on “so many different levels.”“It’s really wonderful to take care of someone who comes in every day for their coffee, and then maybe once a week, they come in for a drink and dinner and that’s really sweet, too,” Dunton said. “And then you get to just really connect with them and be there for them.”The owners hope to bring the mentality of their community-based events from Fox Market, like its Queer Poetry Night, into the new space. Dunton noted that they’ve seen people meet friends and significant others from those experiences. Similar to Fox Market, they said Foxy’s “prioritizes the safety and well-being of the queer community.” But, “everyone is welcome. As long as you’re not a jerk, you’re good.”Ernest Merrimont prepares a buckwheat old-fashioned at Foxy’s, a new cafe-restaurant-bar combo in Barre on Tuesday, December 17. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerQuietly growingA few doors down from Foxy’s, Cat Allen is planning her own grand opening. Allen is owner of the Barre Social Club, a soon-to-come coworking, social and events space. She and her husband moved to Barre two years ago for a temporary work contract and fell in love with the city, she said. While planning to host a trivia night on Barre history, she came across a report from the Center for Rural Development titled All in for Barre, which looked at the city’s potential future growth. One of the top wants cited by residents in the report, she noticed, was a coworking space. Allen’s experience is part of what many residents have noted as a small wave of newcomers moving into the Granite City. With those new residents have cropped up new businesses.Besides Foxy’s and the Barre Social Club, business openings since the July 2023 flood include clothing store Slowpoke Exchange, Tally pool hall and bar, Tasty Bites diner, Granite City Market and Vita Wellness spa. Lewis said she plans to attend a ribbon cutting for Dames, a new cannabis dispensary, on Friday. A little further back were the pandemic-era openings of AR Market and The Meltdown restaurant in 2020 and Pearl Street Pizza in 2021, Lewis said. Lewis attributed the surge to a combination of business owners seeking lower rents than they would find in nearby Montpelier, and business owners liking the unique feel of the Barre community. “I mean, I don’t blame them. I love our community,” she said. The businesses work in tandem with each other to draw customers in. “Instead of just going to one business, they start to tour and check out other places, too,” Lewis said. The Barre Partnership is working on a tourism initiative called Destination Barre that would create a convenient itinerary of destinations for touring companies and one-off travelers. The organization also hosts seasonal events like the ongoing Merry Barre holiday weekends, offering hot cocoa and horse-drawn carriage rides. Allen said she hoped to provide not only a new business but also a new “third space” for Barre residents to go beyond home and work, somewhere where adults can make friends and become a part of a community. Co-owner Doni Cain greets customers at Foxy’s, a new cafe-restaurant-bar in Barre on Tuesday, December 17. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger“It’s an event space that people can rent out to have their own events, but we will also host events like supper clubs, watch parties, just different things that we think people will like to have an opportunity to connect with other humans,” Allen said.She also praised Foxy’s for helping to draw in new opportunities for LGBTQ+ residents of central Vermont. She said some of her friends talk about “the queering of Barre.” “And I think it’s kind of lovely, honestly, because it’s a wildly kind demographic,” she said. Dunton said Foxy’s was helping to change the misconception that “there aren’t queer people in rural communities.” “Here in Vermont, I think, and central Vermont specifically, I think we are a community that is dedicated to community building and taking care of each other,” Dunton said. “And I think that really speaks to rural spaces and rural towns, and so to give folks who are in those spaces a place to come together and meet and network, but in like, the sweetest sense of the term … I feel like that happened at Fox Market sort of really naturally, loosely, and I hope it happens here too.”Read the story on VTDigger here: Foxy’s opens amid resurgence of Barre’s downtown.