Gabrielle recalls when they first took over the coffee shop from the previous owner. They moved into the apartment above the shop and while they changed the name, they didn’t touch the interior decorations. Still, people would come in and say they loved what they had done to the place.

“Something about this space — people will tell us, ‘this is a safe space,'” Gabrielle said. “Even if half of the art exhibit has been bought, and we’ve got nicks on the walls, there’s nothing pretentious about the space. It’s just like you’re walking into somebody’s half lived-in living room”

And it was the family’s living room, practically, since they live right above the shop.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic presented a challenge for businesses, Gabrielle remembers it as a sweet time. They became a place people could go to find a sense of routine and normalcy. They turned their front window into a pick-up window and learned to recognize their customers’ cars so they could run their coffee orders out.

Gabrielle and Steve Popp stand in their coffee shop and home, Old Mountain Coffee, in Keene Valley on Wednesday. The shop will be open for the last day today. (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

Gabrielle is grateful for the ways they have been invited into special moments in people’s lives — they’ve been asked to cater weddings, provide for special brunches and memorial services. She knows the people who come in every day and order the same thing, setting up their laptop at the same table to work. She knows the groups of friends who come in for a cup of tea or to talk over lunch.

Old Mountain Coffee was pretty much the only place in Keene or Keene Valley to sit down and work over a cup of coffee, Gabrielle said. She knows their absence will leave a void, which she hopes other businesses will step up to fill. However, it is a priority for her and her husband to prioritize time with family. Their son is ten, and “still wants to hang out with mom and dad.”

“That time is fleeting, so we were like, ‘it has to happen now,'” Gabrielle said. “Tomorrow’s too late.”

Although the shop is closing, they will continue to roast their signature coffee beans, which will be available online at their website and through their wholesale partners, including but not limited to Green Goddess in Lake Placid, Nori’s in Saranac Lake and the Whitney’s Maple Spring Farm stand in Keene.

They are keeping the building and plans are in the works for a new use, so they encourage the community to stay tuned.

Sign at Old Mountain Coffee in Keene Valley (Enterprise photo — Grace McIntyre)

The challenge of operating a coffee shop was also the blessing. The nonstop action during peak seasons and weekends is one of the reason the business wasn’t very sustainable for a family with a young child, Gabrielle said.

However, one of her favorite parts of the job were the slower moments when she could take the time to reconnect with neighbors who dropped into the shop.

To see the impact Old Mountain Coffee had on the community around them, you only have to look as far as the hundreds of comments on their social media posts announcing the shop’s closing.

“You have become friends and family to me.”

“You were the light at the end of the (long drive from Long Island) tunnel.”

“We always stop there — it’s only a few times a year but it feels like home.”

“OMC is part of the heart and soul of Keene Valley.”

Gabrielle said she is mourning the loss of community in the space they’ve created, more than anything.

“We’d like to thank people for the outpouring of support and being loving towards us over the years,” Gabrielle said. “We’ve felt the love, definitely, and we’re feeling it right now.”