Riverview Café marks 15 years in Longfellow

Today, David Bernick and his wife, Mara, operate the Riverview Café together, along with the adjacent Riverview Wine Bar. (Photo by Stefanie Berres)

By IRIC NATHANSON

Dave Bernick remembers standing out on the corner of 38th Street and 42nd Avenue in the late 1990s watching young moms and dads go by with their strollers.

“I had just finished doing a market study of Longfellow, and I had been looking at the reports from the 1990 census. They said the average age in the neighborhood was something over 60. But I knew those reports were now out-of-date. Longfellow was changing. A lot of young people were moving in, and that change wasn’t reflected in the census.”

Bernick’s street corner observations prompted him to move ahead with a new business venture at 38th and 42nd. That venture, the Riverview Café, is now marking its 15th year in Longfellow. During a time when many other independent coffee shops have come and gone, the Riverview continues to be a popular neighborhood gathering spot. Today, Bernick and his wife, Mara, operate the café together, along with the adjacent Riverview Wine Bar.

In the 1990s, as he moved ahead with a plan for his new venture, Bernick was transitioning out of his earlier career in the corporate world. “I wanted to move out on my own and a coffee shop seemed like the right fit for me. I had lived for a time in California where the coffee shop movement was gaining momentum, so the time was right to bring that movement to Longfellow.”

While he was doing his market research, the Riverview’s future owner was eyeing an abandoned, dilapidated building at 38th and 42nd, that had once housed Crane’s Drug Store. “The building was a mess, but it had a great history,” Bernick recalled. “People still remembered the soda fountain at Crane’s. It was the neighborhood gathering place of its time.”

Bernick noticed that the building had been sold and was about to be restored, so he began negotiations with the owner to lease space there. Later, after the Riverview was up and running, he purchased the building, which included two additional storefront spaces, along with the coffee shop.

“The intersection had a lot going for it, he noted, “Fairview had just decided to rebuild its clinic across the street, and that was a good sign that it had confidence in the neighborhood. The Riverview Theater on the next corner was a real destination, and I knew that brought potential customers into the area. And then, there was Mother Earth Gardens right across the street.”

“My goal was to make the Riverview a welcoming place that did not have a corporate feel, and that is something that Mara and I are still working at today. We don’t go by a formula, like the chains do, which says that you have to have to stick the numbers and have just right amount of sandwiches and pastries. I think we have been successful because we are so much a part of the neighborhood. Mara and I live here. People know us and we know them. Our customers see this place as their coffee shop. There is a lot of neighborhood investment.”

During the 15 years that the Riverview has helped anchor 38th and 42nd, the neighborhood has continued to evolve, Bernick said. “Today, Longfellow is a place for the Uptown crowd that has gotten tired of Uptown. Uptown was fine when they were younger, but now they want to settle down and buy a home, but still have access to the amenities and the urban life they were able to enjoy when they lived in that part of town. That’s what they are finding here in this neighborhood.”

Bernick says he still meets people who tell him that they want to open a coffee shop. “They see all the good vibes that a coffee shop gives off and they think it would be a great business to run. I tell them to follow their dream, but I also tell them about all the work they don’t see that goes on behind the scenes. You have to wear many hats. You have to be a plumber, a janitor and an accountant. You have to be prepared to put in a lot of hours doing work that is not very glamorous.”

“We keep getting asked if we are going to open a second location, but that is something we are not going to do. It would take too great a toll on our family life, and, in any case, it just wouldn’t work. We wouldn’t have the same kind of neighborhood connection if we went and opened up a shop in a strip mall somewhere out in Burnsville.”