What happens on the day a neighborhood’s cultural institution opens for the final time? How did it become so beloved? How do people treasure their memories without becoming stuck in the past?
Bove’s Cafe was run by three generations of the same family, in the same place, in the same way, for close to three-quarters of a century. Students rubbed elbows with senators in a small room packed with worn vinyl booths and chrome-edged tables, warding off cold Vermont nights with steaming helpings of pasta, meatballs, and hearty garlic-laden tomato sauce at affordable prices. It served as a community crossroads, an anchor for young people in need of hand up, and a harbor of stability, comfort, and familiarity in a hectic society.
And then one day, change came.
The Last Day at Bove’s Cafe is a documentary film that celebrates the history of a special small restaurant run by a special family, examines the nature of emotional attachment to public spaces, and creates a record of a place where the values of an earlier time survived into the modern world.