“How do you know that?” the ticket taker asks. “Look at the sound system,” he says. “Mounted Bose speakers, in a Grange hall! And smell that coffee. You people are serious!”
Well, yes and no. The East Sangerville Grange members held their first coffeehouse 11 years ago for a very non-serious reason: “We decided we needed to have more fun,” says longtime member Alan Bray. So, with the help of professional musician Sid Stutzman, Bray and his fellow members installed a sound system (using Stutzman’s equipment), lined up some first-class talent, and launched its debut performance. “It was wildly popular, right off the bat,” Bray says.
The serious part came a bit later, when they started selling desserts at their coffeehouses
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“The dessert thing has become a little bit competitive,” Bray admits. “It’s even worse than usual tonight. I told everyone you can only publish one recipe in the magazine, so everyone wants it to be theirs.”
Just then, as if on cue, Bray’s wife, Diana, enters the room, wearing a gown and tiara. She saunters into the hall with her Chocolate Coconut Almond-Crust Tart in one hand and a lit candelabra in the other. Her fellow Grange-members laugh, take photos, and shake their heads. “Leave it to Diana.” “See what we mean?” “Presentation is everything, right, Diana?”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” she says.
Bray sets down her tart, changes her clothes, and joins the assembly line: It’s getting close to 6 p.m.—time to cut into everyone’s beautiful creations, put them on plates, and add garnishes. Though the price of the desserts is ridiculously low ($2 each), the roster reads more like a dessert issue of Bon Appetit: Cream-filled Cinnamon Gateau, Lemon Lavender Cake, Cadbury Milk Chocolate Cake with Kahlua/Espresso Mousse and Chocolate Ganache Topping, Rhubarb Swirled Cheesecake Infused with White Chocolate, et-calorie-laden-cetera. To wash down the decadence, they also offer several beverages, starring coffee that rivals Starbucks or Gevalia, sold for an insane 50 cents a cup.
The East Sangerville Grange Coffeehouses run monthly from November to May; tonight is their last show until fall. Though the evening’s performance—Chris and Meredith Thompson from Boston—starts at 7, people begin arriving at 6 to get a good seat, to socialize, and to start in on the sweet stuff.
Donna Runnels, from Abbot, is here with her coworker Joann Lovell, from “the big city of Monson.” Runnels, a singer herself, tries to attend a few concerts each year.
Len and Sharrel Nilson, on the other hand, are bonafide regulars: They’ve attended most of the Grange coffeehouses since they moved to Sangerville from Augusta, 10 years ago. “It’s a good place to see our neighbors,” Len says, “and to get a good piece of pie.”
In spite of the low-cost high-class refreshments, the coffeehouses are a major money maker for the East Sangerville Grange. They reinvest “basically every penny back into the building,” Alan Bray says. Gail D’Agostino rattles off some of the improvements their coffeehouses have helped pay for: a new roof, new foundation, new furnace, and, joy of joys, an indoor bathroom. “We used to have an outhouse,” she says. Those proceeds—plus plenty of sweat equity (“we do a lot of the work ourselves,” says McCarthy-Clark) allows the Grange hall to continue serving as centerpiece for the entire community, housing events from weddings to annual meetings to summer theater camps.
It’s the coffeehouses, however, that have garnered the most attention. Held during the off-season purposely, the event brings in people from surrounding communities like Abbot, Dover-Foxcroft, and Guilford, as well as attracts a loyal following from the Bangor area. Fans include the musicians and their groupies (“they all make a big deal out of the sound system and the desserts,” Bray says), as well as a few regional celebrities, like the Shop Girl (Kristen Andresen) from the Bangor Daily.
Another fan is Mark Young (aka Mark the Shark) from 100.3 WKIT FM, who handles the sound for most performances. He’s at the sound board tonight, making final adjustments before the Thompson twins start their show.
“I started coming here to record these concerts for WDME [WKIT’s sister station],” he explains. But when the sponsorship ended for those Sunday night broadcasts, Young kept coming on his own. “I come here to get away from that world out there. People come in here, there’s a candle on every table, the lights go down,
the music starts, and you’re in a completely different world. It’s a nice getaway once a month. Plus,” he adds, “the desserts are
incredible.”
Louise Ringle’s Cream & Cinnamon Gateau
Yield: 12–14 servings
Cake:
1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 l/4 cups flour, sifted
2 Tbs. cinnamon
Cream filling:
4 cups whipping cream
5 Tbs. powdered sugar
3 Tbs. kirsch
Powdered sugar, cherries. and chocolate to decorate
Preheat oven to 375º F. Cut out 14 parchment-paper circles, 9 inches across. Turn 2 round 9-inch cake pans upside down, grease surface, and place one parchment circle on each greased surface. Lightly grease the parchment papers; set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs well, one at a time. Sift flour and cinnamon into bowl; fold in. Spread 1/3 cup of batter onto each prepared circle from center to the edge. Place
pans on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Cool cake layers for 2 minutes on pans, then invert layers on wire rack and carefully peel off paper. Layers are fragile: allow to cool completely and do not stack. Repeat for rest of 14 layers. For filling, whip cream in a large bowl until peaks form. Beat in kirsch and powdered sugar. Reserve 2/3 cup of cream for garnish and refrigerate. Place first layer of cake on a serving plate; spread with a thin layer of cream and repeat. Decorate top and refrigerate until time to serve.
