New Deal Cafe

The New Deal Café is a restaurant, music venue and community coffee house in the historic Roosevelt Center of Greenbelt, Maryland. It is a rare example of a restaurant operated as a consumers' cooperative, as it is owned by over 200 member patrons. The café, which has a small beer/wine bar in its back room, features nightly and some daytime performances by regional musicians, and sponsors several outdoor music festivals each year, including the Crazy Quilt Festival and the Greenbelt Blues Festival. The café walls are decorated with art by local artists, which is changed bi-monthly. The arts and entertainment activities are supported by the Friends of New Deal Café Arts (FONDCA), a separate, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. The New Deal Café won WTOP radio's Top-10 2012 best music venue in the DC region. The café's menu offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner options, as well as a variety of smoothies and coffee beverages. The café is under management by the Greenbelt Consumer Cooperative, commonly known as the Coöp grocery store/supermarket. There is beer on tap and a selection of wines, beer on tap, and bottled beer. The café is often referred to by customers as "Greenbelt's community living room" or its "third place,” part of the third place movement. Its name comes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, which was responsible for the founding of Greenbelt.