Bump ‘n Grind will open its coffee kiosk at the Silver Spring Library this Saturday, June 26, according to a tweet posted last evening.
“Hey Silver Spring!,” the post reads. “We passed our inspection and will see you at the library Saturday!”
The coffee shop and roaster is taking over the space vacated by Kefa Cafe, which decamped for the Wheaton Library last year.
“We have been honored for the past five years to operate the coffee shop located on the grounds of the Silver Spring Library,” said Kefa Cafe’s co-owner Lene Tsegay in a statement last year, “and we are proud to have established a precedent for creating a welcoming and supportive community space for library customers. It has been a welcome opportunity for us to expand the services we provide to our Silver Spring community.”
Kefa’s original contract was for five years with built-in annual renewals that the county exercised. “At the end of that period, the contract has to be rebid,” said David Dise, director of the county’s Department of General Services, in a statement to the Source last year.
Kefa and Bump ’n Grind both submitted proposals through the county’s Local Small Business Reserve Program. The RFP included the operational requirements and duties of the contractor, equipment expectations, and a minimum list of the menu items the operator must offer.
“The proposals were reviewed based upon criteria in the solicitation and when the rankings came out…Bump ’n Grind had won,” Dise said.
The criteria included the contractor’s experience, the café’s business, and operations plan, and product list with proposed prices.
“That’s the same type of solicitation and the same process through which [Lene] won the Wheaton contract,” Dise said.
“We’ll have a record bin for people to browse,” Fogel said to the Source last year. “I’ve been talking to Hannah [O. Depp] over at Loyalty Books about doing some programming, as well as hopefully having some kind of curated books for sale as well.”
Fogel sees that portion of the café’s business as offering some synergy with the library.
“My perspective from the library’s goals and objectives are similar to ours,” he said. “Let’s just create a community space that’s serving the people in Montgomery County. The more that each of us is doing that, the better.
“We both want to be doing things—hosting events and programming and providing a service that resonates with county residents,” Fogel added.
Bump ‘n Grind closed its East-West Highway location last month, and joined Moorenko’s Ice Cream and Patisserie Manuel at Moorenko’s Ice Cream Café at 8030 Georgia Ave.
“File:Silver Spring Library 9-23-16.jpg” by Abby Norling-Ruggles is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Hey Silver Spring! We passed our inspection and will see you at the library Saturday!
— Bump N' Grind (@BmpNGrind) June 22, 2021