"I am so glad to be back. It is so nice here," James Kim told the Rye Record this month, standing in the café he built inside a former TD Bank at 42 Purchase Street. "So expensive, but so nice."
Downtown Rye has more places to get coffee than it did in the spring. The new arrivals are in large spaces on Purchase Street. A block away, on the short stretch of Purdy Avenue by the train station, small independent storefronts are closing or moving, and two parcels are waiting on a redevelopment process the city has paused. The city is collecting public input on downtown design rules at the end of this month.
Purchase Street got the big rooms
The first new café arrived in midsummer. maman opened at 64 Purchase Street on Thursday, July 23. MyRye described it as a "2,000 square-foot French cafe." maman lists its Rye hours as 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, which makes it one of the later-closing coffee stops downtown.
RéUnion Bakery & Coffee followed in early October with a soft opening. The Rye Record reported it is now downtown Rye's largest café, approved for 84 seats. Kim spent two years planning it in a building his family has owned for decades. Pastry chef Alexis Grea runs a kitchen customers can see into from one end of the room. Coffee beans are roasted in a room open to view at the other end. Some of the old bank remains, including a walk-in safe that now holds the restrooms. The pastries described at launch included pain au chocolat, raspberry croissant tartelettes, and a flat savory pastry with ham and Comté. Kim said the menu will run from breakfast and coffee through lunch and soft-serve, from early morning to late afternoon.
RéUnion's family history on the block is part of its story. Kim's parents opened Belle Cleaners in Rye in 1984 and later expanded it to five other towns in Westchester and Fairfield County. Kim told the Record he hopes RéUnion can grow the same way.
A third new business on the same street isn't a café, but it fills an empty storefront. Framebridge opened at 27 Purchase Street on September 12, in the space that used to house Gentlemen's Grooming Lounge.
The morning map, by the clock
Kim named his competition in the Record story: maman, Sunshine Coffee Roasters, Winfield Street Coffee, The Granola Bar, Le Pain Quotidien and Starbucks. Their posted hours show they serve different parts of the day.
| Café | Address | Weekday hours | Weekend hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunshine Coffee Roasters | 12 Purdy Ave. | 6 a.m.–4 p.m. | 7 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Winfield Street Coffee | 2 Station Plaza | 6 a.m.–7 p.m. | Sat 8 a.m.–7 p.m.; Sun 8 a.m.–2 p.m. |
| The Granola Bar | 96 Purchase St. | 7 a.m.–4 p.m. | 8 a.m.–4 p.m. |
| Le Pain Quotidien | 30 Purchase St. | 7 a.m.–5 p.m. | 7 a.m.–5 p.m. |
| maman | 64 Purchase St. | 7:30 a.m.–6 p.m. | 8 a.m.–6 p.m. |
| RéUnion Bakery & Coffee | 42 Purchase St. | Early morning to late afternoon, per the owner | Early morning to late afternoon, per the owner |
Sunshine and Winfield both open at 6 a.m. on weekdays, and both are near the station. Winfield is the only spot on this list open past 6 p.m. on weekdays, which covers the evening commute home. Most of the Purchase Street cafés open after 7 a.m. and are built for longer visits, and RéUnion's 84 seats make that the clearest case. The two newest cafés are also the two largest rooms, and both are on Purchase Street.
What changed on Purdy Avenue
Purdy Avenue already shows what downtown redevelopment looks like when it is finished. 12 Purdy Ave. went up in 2022 with six apartments over three commercial spaces, and Saigon Table and Sunshine Coffee Roasters opened on its ground floor in 2024, according to the Rye Record. Sunshine, which opens earliest on the list above, is in that new building.
Across the street, the older storefronts have emptied over the past few weeks.
- La Petite Bretagne, 3 Purdy Ave. The creperie closed in late September after almost a year, the Rye Record reported, with its owner pointing to the number of coffee and pastry options downtown. The original La Petite Bretagne in Mamaroneck is still open.
- Aly & Joshua, 8 Purdy Ave. The clothing shop closed its only physical store after 22 months and still sells online.
- Su Misura, 4 Purdy Ave. Julio Tepan opened the tailor shop in 2000, and his son Fernando has run it since 2018. It is moving to a second-floor space at 43 Theodore Fremd Ave. under a five-year lease with an option for five more.
The tailor is moving because of a sale. The Rye Record reported that a developer, 84-86 Purchase Street LLC, bought the Purdy Avenue building and the building next door on Purchase Street in January for $5 million. The company plans to renovate 84-86 Purchase St., tear down 2-8 Purdy Ave., and build a new mixed-use building in its place. Plans filed with the Rye Planning Commission show three ground-floor commercial spaces and five two-bedroom apartments with elevator access. They would replace six one-bedroom units that the developer says don't meet current accessibility codes.
A third Purdy Avenue site has been waiting longer. At 11-15 Purdy, MM Real Estate Partners won a Zoning Board variance in September 2024 for eight two-bedroom apartments above storefronts. The businesses there moved out, including Town Dock, which closed in June 2024 after 27 years. The project still hasn't been built, and in July the developer asked to extend its site plan approval.
Taken together, one block of Purdy Avenue has a finished building with a coffee roaster on the ground floor, one approved project that hasn't started, and one plan that just changed hands. The new café openings went to large spaces on Purchase Street. The smaller storefronts on Purdy are in between, emptying out with nothing yet scheduled to replace them.
Why the corner is on hold
Downtown construction stopped by design this summer. The City Council voted on June 8 to adopt a six-month moratorium on development in the central business district, as the Rye Record reported. Under the local law, the six months began when the law was filed with the New York Secretary of State, and the Council can extend it by up to 180 days by resolution. As of mid-October, the Purdy Avenue project had not been before a city board since April. Rye's master plan hasn't been revised in more than 40 years, and the city is now working on it.
The moratorium gives the city time to write the rules. Rye has hired the planning firm Yard & Company to draft updated design guidelines and zoning recommendations for the central business district. That follows a 2025 recommendation from the city's Central Business District Development Review Committee, which found that current zoning generally fits downtown's scale but said the city needs more guidance on building massing, architectural features, and how new buildings fit the streetscape.
Residents can weigh in starting next week. Downtown Rye Design Week runs Oct. 26–28, with public Community Design Labs at the Rye Free Reading Room on Oct. 26 and Oct. 28. Attendees can take part in hands-on activities and review early design concepts. "Downtown Rye is the heart of our community and top of mind when we think about preservation and progress in Rye," Mayor Josh Nathan said in the city's announcement. Rules on building massing and streetscape fit will help decide how large the ground-floor shops at Purdy and Purchase can be.
Where the coffee map meets the calendar
The next six weeks of downtown events all happen within walking distance of these cafés.
- Thursday food trucks, Oct. 22 and 29. Rye Recreation's series at Recreation Park ends with Scotty's Eggrolls on Oct. 22 and Taco-ish on Oct. 29, both 5:30–8:30 p.m.
- Jay Day, Sunday, Oct. 25. The Jay Heritage Center fall festival runs 11 a.m.–3 p.m. with music, pony rides, hayrides, a petting zoo, and food trucks.
- Community Design Labs, Oct. 26 and 28. Both are at the Rye Free Reading Room, a short walk from Purdy Avenue.
- Rye Farmers Market, Sundays through Nov. 22. Down to Earth's market is in the lot off Theodore Fremd behind the Purchase Street Car Park 2 stores, close to Su Misura's new address at 43 Theodore Fremd.
- Holiday Stroll, Thursday, Nov. 19. The Rye Chamber of Commerce holds its second annual stroll downtown from 5 to 8 p.m., with shopping, restaurant specials, live music, food trucks, children's crafts, and a tree lighting on the Village Green.
On a stroll night, Winfield Street Coffee and maman will be the only cafés on the table above still open past 5 p.m., at least by their posted hours. After Design Week, Yard & Company will refine its recommendations for the City Council to consider at a later date.
I've followed downtown Rye for more than two decades, and changes to a corner like Purdy and Purchase eventually show up in how a downtown is valued and how a neighborhood feels to live in. If you'd like to talk through what Design Week could mean for Rye's center, or how downtown changes like these affect a home search or sale nearby, Cindy Schwall is glad to compare notes over coffee at any of the spots above. Let's Connect.
