With summer just around the corner, there are several new additions coming to the restaurant scene in downtown Goshen and changes being made to familiar locations. The new restaurants being introduced include The Fold and Cortado, while Common Spirits, an existing restaurant, has decided to close its kitchen.

The Fold will be a bar and New York-style pizzeria opening in the building once occupied by the bar Constant Spring. It is projected to be up and running in just over a month, according to Jesse Shoemaker, an owner and co-founder of the restaurant and Goshen College alum. 

Shoemaker, along with Jesse Sensenig ’01 and Sensenig’s father-in-law, are the majority owners of the new restaurant. Sensenig and Shoemaker were both involved in founding Goshen Brewing Company as well.

Plans include an all-ages pizza-by-the-slice section at the front, as well as a full menu for customers over 21 years old who dine in. The space that The Fold will occupy contains a full bar, window seating and a loft area. A door will lead to outdoor alley seating during the summer.

Though the intention is not to create a sports bar, Shoemaker explained that there would be projectors for larger events. “If it’s a World Cup game or something like that, it’s just like, yeah, bring them down, turn them all on, pump the sound for the whole place and just have a party. Make a whole event out of it,” he said. 

Shoemaker also said that if all goes according to plan, the oven will be installed and they will be able to make pizzas by the weekend.

Referencing the differences between Goshen Brewing Company and The Fold, Shoemaker said, “[GBCo does] lots of big events. We do lots of rotating of the menu and that sort of stuff. And the idea behind this is to keep it simpler, you know, a little more easy to manage.”

Across the street and a block north lies the future location of Cortado, which will be a café  with a variety of dining options. It is replacing Embassy Coffee Co. on Main Street. 

Victoria Brenneman, former publisher of Edible Michiana magazine, is the founder of Cortado and is fulfilling a long-time dream to own a restaurant. “I’ve always been passionate about local food and cooking,” Brenneman said. 

She continued, “I’ve always joked that I should be a restaurant critic.”

It will be a bit longer before Cortado is ready to open its doors. Brenneman said that it will likely be around the time that students are returning to school in the fall when the restaurant opens to the public.

The name Cortado comes from a Spanish drink. According to Brenneman, it is meant to represent the variety of foods and drinks that she hopes to serve, and it is also a nod to the archways in the building that have a “Spanish feel to them.”

The menu will include breakfast and lunch options, soups, salads and sandwiches. Brenneman also plans to have a wine bar in the back and plenty of options to cater to vegetarians and vegans.

With regards to such dietary needs, Common Spirits is a bar and restaurant that offered a number of options for various dietary needs. However, Common Spirits closed its kitchen in early March. The kitchen was shared with Daycap, a restaurant and briefly a thrift store, which has also permanently closed.

According to Moriah Hurst, a community member and pastor at Assembly Mennonite Church, this has limited the options for people with dietary restrictions such as hers, which include allergies to wheat, dairy and eggs.

At many restaurants, Hurst needs to have things removed from the food in order to accommodate her. “I didn’t have to modify much at Common Spirits,” she said.

In a video posted on social media, Jami Hawkins, the proprietor of Common Spirits, said that the kitchen closing was simply a necessity with how much work it took to keep it running. Hawkins said, “The truth is that this space is just not really serving us anymore and it’s just a chapter that we feel is ready to end.”

Hurst is optimistic about new restaurants’ possibilities to be allergy-friendly.

Brenneman referenced a quote from Michael Pollan that she felt was fitting for the subject. Pollan said, “Food is not just fuel. Food is about family; food is about community; food is about identity. And we nourish all those things when we eat well.”