On 112 Riverside Avenue lives Ada’s Kitchen + Coffee, an eatery and coffee shop that opened in 2016. Founded by Chef Michael Pietrafeso, Ada’s Kitchen offers a variety of breakfast and lunch items including scratch-made sandwiches, wraps, salads, bowls, pastries, locally roasted artisan coffee, tea, and smoothies. Pietrafeso uses ingredients from local farms and vendors and changes the menu for each season, a part of the reason customers are so attracted to the menu. This eatery is such a happening place; every time I go there it is bustling with smiling customers, and there are often scores of people in the parking lot waiting to pick up their food. Though it is a small eatery without inside seating, this doesn’t deter customers who are undoubtedly there to relish the consistently fresh food.
Now, nearly eight years later, it has been announced that this beloved shop is bound to close in mid-February 2024 due to high rent. This is saddening for many Riverside residents, including myself, as Ada’s Kitchen has been a quaint, walkable cafe for weekend mornings, or days when breakfast is on the go. It is cherished by teenagers too—some high school students who live near the eatery grab a bite to eat there before catching their bus. For me, Ada’s Kitchen serves as both a breakfast and lunch place and I always look forward to their refreshing chocolate almond smoothie and the unmatched breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, potatoes, avocado, and red chile sauce.
Additionally, more than the food, the history of this location is too rich to let slip away. The building of Ada’s Kitchen was the Riverside Post Office in the late 1800s. In 1950, Ada Cantavero opened Ada’s Variety Shop, a penny candy store, in that very building, and it stayed open for almost 60 years. When Cantavero passed away in 2008, her nephew, Ron Romaniello, wanted to keep her tradition alive, and reached out to Pietrafeso. Ada’s Kitchen was then born after undergoing a renovation and opened shortly thereafter.
Pietrafeso has since opened Roost Kitchen + Coffee, a sister store of Ada’s both in Darien and Cos Cob in 2021 at 236 E. Putnam Ave.
Though Roost features almost the same menu, it is not walkable and doesn’t offer the same experience that Ada’s Kitchen gives as a small, historical shop that has been around for more than fifty years/almost one-hundred years. Ada’s Kitchen is a store that maintains the history of Riverside; without it, a piece of history will slowly fade away.
To all of us, Ada’s Kitchen is more than a place with good food—it is a gathering spot that has become such an essential part of the Riverside community. Ada’s Kitchen is irreplaceable and we must support this local business to preserve it for future generations. Dede Siguler, a Riverside resident, has started a petition on Change.org regarding the closure of Ada’s Kitchen, and I urge you to sign it if you are reading this piece. Hopefully, we can salvage this integral part of our neighborhood if we all voice our opinions on the matter.
Shreya Prabhu is a student journalist based in Greenwich, Connecticut. She enjoys reporting for her school newspaper, reading and being an active member of her Model United Nations team.
