What’s New With the Rye Metro-North Station? Long-Delayed Coffee House Hopes For Summer Opening

On Oct. 26, 2011, a user with presumably a Big Lebowski-inspired alias “Walter Sobchak” logged onto the railroad-enthusiast blog iridetheharlemline.com, clicked on the blog post titled “Tuesday Tour of the New Haven Line: Rye,” and started typing in the comment box.

“I always thought the Rye station house was not only ugly, but useless,” the user posted at 4:37 a.m.

Thirteen years later, those words carry some truth. The Rye Metro-North station house, situated behind the New York City-bound platform, is neither functional nor conspicuous. 

The windows of the station house are covered with cardboard. But if you climb the wire seats adjacent to it, you will see stacked chairs, chairs strewn across the ground — and some right where they are supposed to be. Like the windows, the ticket counters inside are also covered. A dubious mop leans against the wall, and the lights are on at night. The station house is stuck in a liminal state — not quite closed, but not quite open either.

But hope is not lost — plans to open Winfield Street Coffee this summer are underway, according to an MTA spokesperson. 

Breno Donatti, the founder of Winfield Street Coffee, said they had been negotiating the lease at the Rye train station since 2018. The MTA owns the station house, and the two sides eventually signed off on a 20-year agreement in 2021, with an option to renew.

Both the MTA spokesperson and Donatti cited pandemic-related pushbacks to explain the initial delays in opening the coffee shop.

But the goal is to serve much more than just coffee. If everything goes as planned, the shop will house both 70 indoor and 60 outdoor seats. Donatti also mentioned a bar element in the works.

“We’re envisioning features like a curated cocktail menu, cheese boards, an outdoor wood-fired stone oven, and even partnerships with food trucks on weekends to create a unique community vibe,” he told The Record.

In the spring of 2023, Winfield ran a brief market test where they set up a pop-up shop in the station house in Rye for three months. 

But the company is already a thriving business model with existing Winfield Street Coffee locations in Florida, Stamford, Conn., Croton-on-Hudson, and in New York City’s 72nd Street and 86th Street subway stations on the Q line. 

The Rye location will have the most in common with the Stamford iteration in terms of atmosphere and offerings, Donatti said.

The train station in Rye sees 1,750 weekly boardings, according to MTA data. Donatti is expecting at least 250 daily visitors, the same number of patrons Winfield sees at its Croton-Harmon Metro-North location, which opened in 2017.

And with the new congestion pricing toll program in Manhattan having already kicked off on Jan. 5, the number of customers could grow even higher. 

Retail spaces in train stations

Train stations and their surrounding areas were once considered wastelands. But the energy crisis peaked after the late 1960s, and the U.S. faced petroleum shortages due to conflicts in the Middle East interrupting oil exports. Thus, it became essential to increase the desirability of public transit.

Urban development organizations in the New York metropolitan area started advocating for the redevelopment of stations. Eventually, office buildings and storefronts were popping up in and around train stations.

By the 1980s, around 350 retail spaces were operated by the MTA.

But due to the pandemic and the consequent rise in remote and hybrid work, nearly 75 percent of retail spaces in the New York transit network are now empty, according to the New York Times.

The problem hasn’t been exclusive to the Empire State. In Philadelphia, five historic station houses were vacant for 10 years, on average, until December when a real estate developer stepped in and signed a 99-year lease to transform them into mixed-use spaces, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Evidence of revitalization has also taken shape across Westchester.

The Bronxville Metro-North station has a cafe that moonlights as a speakeasy. The Dobbs Ferry station has a restaurant and bar with views overlooking the Hudson River. The New Rochelle station, on top of already having a coffee shop, is getting a $100 million renovation. Mamaroneck’s station house has been transformed into a restaurant, and a Starbucks sits inside Tuckahoe’s — to name a few.

The Rye Record spoke with commuters on the southbound platform of the Rye Metro-North train station on a recent Sunday evening. Becca Bernard, a variety performer living in Brooklyn, was waiting on the outdoor platform for the train to Grand Central. She had been working various gigs in Rye, including one at Playland over the summer for entertainment and face painting.

“Whenever I’m coming or whenever I’m going, I always have to make sure that I time it well,” she said. “Because I know if it’s raining out or if there’s crazy elements, I’m going to be outside waiting for the train to go back to the city.” 

The only place to wait for the train inside — unless you have a car — is the shelter on the platform. “It would be really nice if there was someplace warm to kill [time] or drink and just be able to weather that travel,” said Bernard. 

Also waiting outside for the New York City-bound train was Angus Aronstein, who grew up in Rye. “Tonight’s not so chilly, but, you know, get out here on a Sunday night in January and it’s 11 degrees and you’re sitting on the track waiting for a train, it can get a little difficult,” he said.

Tyler Breckenridge, another commuter who grew up in Rye and now lives in the Big Apple, said he “would definitely” support a new coffee shop.

The Rye station through the years

The Rye station house wasn’t always vacant. The “Ticket Office” sign still hangs over the entrance. Before the pandemic, it was open with bathrooms, vending machines, and even “a station master who would literally sit in the house,” said Aronstein.

In the early 2000s, there was a coffee and newspaper vendor there, although the MTA did not answer requests for when that vendor vacated the space.

The opening of Winfield, however, will be the first time that the entire Rye station house — outside of a waiting room and restrooms — will be used for commercial purposes, according to the MTA spokesperson.

“We have one more hurdle to cross, and I think then we’ll be good to go,” Donatti said. The hurdle is the permit to gut the Italian terrazzo flooring, according to Donatti. “It’s historic,” he said, explaining that the delays were partly due to the involvement of the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in the lease negotiations.

Marcel Breuer, a renowned modernist architect, originally designed the Rye train station in the mid-1950s. Donatti said Breuer “actually sketched the design of [the station house] on a napkin” in Rye, according to what he had heard from residents and MTA directors over the years.

Breuer’s design featured a flat-roof building with large windows, similar to what was designed and ultimately built by the New Haven Railroad under the supervision of the Railroad’s in-house architects. 

To cut costs, the Railroad used brick as the primary building material instead of Breuer’s selection of fieldstone, representing a significant change in the design. Regardless, due to its mid-century modern style and its association with Breuer, the station house has been deemed eligible for listing on the National Register by the SHPO, according to the MTA.

One element that Donatti would like to carry over from the old station house is “Untitled” by Matt Mullican: a mosaic that spans multiple walls, honoring the work of Breuer. Mullican’s artwork depicts 19 of Breuer’s works, including buildings, furniture, and designs — and it is expected to be visible to the public in all its glory as soon as Winfield Street Coffee opens its doors.

The Grand Central-bound train closed in on the Rye Metro-North station on that recent Sunday, and Aronstein rose from his outdoor seat on the platform to board.

“What is more passed by commuters than a building right in front of the train station into Manhattan?” asked Aronstein as he watched the stations on the New Haven line go by.

“So I think the stars sort of aligned perfectly to put a coffee shop in there,” he said.