Visionary Cafe: One man's dream meets one city's vision
Visionary Cafe and Deli owner Pedro Zephirin, right, with musician Ron Williams outside his restaurant Tuesday evening.
By David Sedore, Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — West Atlantic Avenue is no longer downtown Delray’s forgotten stepchild. At least not in the eyes of Pedro Zephirin, owner of the Visionary Café and Deli in the 700 block of West Atlantic, which celebrated its grand opening Tuesday.
Zephirin has bet a small fortune, not mention his future, that the city’s vision of a unified, thriving downtown stretching westward from A1A to Swinton Avenue and beyond is finally becoming reality.
“All the way to I-95,” Zephirin said. “That’s the basic idea.”
In the not too distant past, West Atlantic Avenue, it would have taken quite a vision to see the neighborhood as it is now. Crime-ridden and blighted, the area wasn’t for the faint of heart. Walking that stretch of Atlantic was out of the question. Even driving through that part of town made some uneasy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, that began to change as Delray committed to revitalizing its downtown.
Major government projects — the south Palm Beach County Courthouse, the city tennis center, the police department building among them — got rid of much of the blight along historically black West Atlantic, making possible a renaissance that turned Atlantic east of Swinton into an enclave of trendy restaurants, shops and art galleries.
The West, divided north and south by Atlantic Avenue's four lanes, languished, with little to attract traffic to the remaining small businesses.
Inside the Visionary Cafe and Deli.
In recent years, city officials have turned their attention to the West. The city, along with the Community Redevelopment Agency, spent $1 million putting in landscaping, new lighting, burying utility lines and widening sidewalks from 2nd Avenue through 6th Avenue. The CRA spent $2.8 million extending the project though 12th.
Last week the city cut the ribbon on West Atlantic Plaza at SW 5th Avenue. The plaza gives the neighborhood a centerpice, a public gathering spot for concerts and other functions.
“It’s ramping up really quickly,” said Stephanie Immelman, marketing coordinator for the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition. “There’s a lot going on. It’s all coming together.
“We want the whole community to be connected.”
Zephirin saw the changes coming and decided to locate his restaurant in the heart of West Atlantic. Zephirin has been in various businesses for 14 years but never has owned a restaurant. Yet he sees the Visionary Café ultimately as the anchor for a chain of franchises, thus the name.
“This is all my dream,” Zephirin said. “It’s my hope for the rest of my life.”
Step into Visionary Café and there’s no doubt the investment Zephirin has put into the business and the West Atlantic neighborhood. This is no dive, rather more like an upscale coffee shop, with wood and stone tile floors, a small seating area where patrons can sit talk, eat and drink and outdoor tables. Zephirin credits his family, including his wife and son, for the interior. His sister, Imelda Zephirin, lined the walls with original Haitian paintings. Orange painted walls contribute to a tropical feel.
The menu is varied, from breakfast crepes, salads, cold and hot sandwiches (Immelman recommended the Cuban) and of course coffees and teas.
City officials, including Mayor Woodie McDuffie, and members of the Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce turned out for Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony. Ron Williams provided music for the event. He plays at the Visionary Café about every other weekend.
“This site is perfect for my style,” Williams said. “It’s neat, very neat.”
Meanwhile, Delray continues efforts to bring more businesses like the Visionary Café to West Atlantic.
The ultimate project in the process of symbolicly unifying Atlantic, creating a gateway to the downtown at I-95, could be become a reality as early as next year, Immelman said.
The CRA has created a number of incentives for businesses to locate and build in the area. And the neighborhood has one thing that the rest of downtown Delray Beach has little: vacant land fronting Atlantic. The CRA owns much of the land, and it’s looking for proposals from businesses willing to build there in exchange for long-term leases on favorable terms.
One prospect floating around: construction of a hotel by a group that includes well-known professional football player, Immelman said.
