Mugs on Main — owned by Jeff Schaeffer and Kasandra Watkins Schaeffer, who were named the Riverhead News-Review’s 2025 Businesspeople of the Year for their community-building and downtown-revitalization work — will close Wednesday, Oct. 14, after more than three years at 33 E. Main St., on the south side of Main Street near the Peconic River. The Schaeffers opened a second cafe, Mugs at Schmidt’s, in Quogue this past June, which will continue to operate.
Watkins Schaeffer says recurring basement flooding has repeatedly disrupted the business. She says recent flooding led to pinhole leaks in basement gas pipes, forcing the cafe to shut off its gas service and close the kitchen.
“It’s not safe for my staff, it’s not safe for my customers,” she says. “My pockets are empty. I can’t keep fixing a building that I don’t get help with fixing.”
Watkins Schaeffer says the basement has flooded intermittently since the cafe moved into the location three and a half years ago. Even after weeks of dry weather, water sometimes accumulates.
“It’s impeded our ability to operate,” she says. “There’s still about an inch and a half of water in the basement, and it comes and goes.”
The business was closed for several days after the nor’easter late last month, when roughly six inches of water seeped in beneath the concrete, she adds.
Riverhead’s fire department responded to the café and temporarily turned off the gas early last week after a National Grid monitor went off.
The cafe, which the couple leases from Ladybugs Riverhead LLC, sits in an area where the Peconic River floodplain reaches behind south-side Main Street properties, according to a state planning document. The town has identified downtown buildings, parking lots and Grangebel Park as vulnerable to flooding during major storms and high tides.
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Customers arriving Friday found a handwritten note pinned to a coffee machine announcing the cafe’s final day and thanking regulars for their support.
“We will miss the community of our regular customers — of being part of your daily lives, and you being a part of ours,” the note says.
Angel Tharpe, the cafe’s assistant manager for nearly two years, says that the shop has given him a front-row seat to customers’ lives and connections.
“We’ve seen people showing off their kid to their best friends for the first time, meeting with a friend that they haven’t seen in 20 years,” he says. “Knowing that we had the ability to give people the space to be able to grow and communicate and have a sense of community was one of my favorite things. I hope that we’ll be able to take this pivot and be able to come back tenfold.”
That sense of community extends beyond the counter. Mugs on Main’s Pay It Forward board has provided at least 500 free meals or coffees in its first two years. The cafe also hosts open-mic nights and art events and partnered this summer with the Butterfly Effect Project to raise money for its community freezer.
Watkins Schaeffer says she’s made so many relationships during her time in Riverhead, but calling them friends isn’t enough. They’re more like family.
“We have a community that’s local, that’s seasonal, that’s daily, that’s yearly,” she says. “It’s sad to see that go. It really is.”
Neighboring businesses mourned the loss of a vibrant operation.
“I’m sorry to hear that they’re closing,” says Ed Tuccio, owner of Tweed’s Restaurant, a few doors down at 17 E. Main St. “We need all the businesses we can get on Main Street. Maybe the town can do more; hopefully they will.”
The social media account for Jerry and the Mermaid posted. “To our friends at Mugs on Main, we’re truly sorry to hear this news. Thank you for being a part of downtown Riverhead. We wish you nothing but the best moving forward.”
With the kitchen closed, Mugs on Main will offer what it can through its final day, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We’ll do our best and what we can to say goodbye to all of our regulars and have one last chance to share a cup of coffee and some conversation,” Watkins Schaeffer says.
