Dorchester Cafe Starts Crowdfunding Campaign to Buy Building

A Dorchester cafe owner has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to purchase the building that houses her operation. Karen Henry-Garrett has run Dot2Dot Cafe for nine years, and facing the prospect of a new building owner and an uncertain future, she decided to take it upon herself to secure a permanent location for the cafe.

Henry-Garrett launched a GoFundMe campaign to support her efforts to purchase the building, according to the Dorchester Reporter, and seven days in, she has raised nearly $2,000 with and end goal of $60,000.

Dot2Dot Cafe first opened in 2008. Henry-Garrett trained at le Cordon Blue in London before moving to the area and starting the cafe at 1739 Dorchester Ave. Now, her landlord has put the building on the market, as Boston Restaurant Talk noted, and Henry-Garrett is working to take the uncertainty of what a new owner could mean for the business out of the equation. She hopes to raise the bulk of the deposit required for the building.

“With a more secure financial base we would also hope to make necessary improvements in order to make the kitchen and counter area larger, and could ensure that Dot2Dot would be a stable part of our community for many years to come,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page.

• Dot2Dot Cafe Launches Funding Campaign to Buy Building [DR]
• Dot 2 Dot Cafe in Dorchester Raising Money to Stay in Its Current Home [BRT]