This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Village Provisions Closes in Essex Village

Parting is such sweet sorrow: Juliet said it to Romeo in the famous balcony scene; Essex said it to Village Provision Company in the last week of March. The popular deli and gathering place, an Essex Main Street fixture, closed up shop on March 31.

There was sadness as people contemplated life without morning coffee, picking up the newspaper and schmoozing with neighbors, but there was a sweet ending: a lunch buffet put out by proprietors Claudia and Jeff Odekerken for anyone who dropped in to say goodbye.

Judging from the crowd around the buffet table, there were a lot of people who wanted to do just that.

“It’s very sad. We’ve come here for 10 years, ever since we’ve moved here,” said Bob Donohue, standing with his wife Barbara.

Ray Oakes, a therapist with a practice in Essex, said he ate lunch every day at Village Provisions, usually a sandwich and chips.

“In the summer I was known for sitting outside on the picnic table,” he said.

And now? Oakes might be thrown back on a classic of childhood.

“Maybe I will have to pack a PB&J at home,” he added.

Father Peter, the priest at both Our Lady of Sorrows in Essex and St. Joseph’s in Deep River who divides his time between the two churches and the two parish houses, told a visitor he was at the gathering because not only will he miss Village Provisions’s egg salad and chili, but also because the Odekerkens are parishioners.

Barry Fulford lamented the loss both of the food and the ambience of Village Provisions.

“Good food, good friends, a wonderful meeting place,” he said.

Pat Thompson, who heads the local Child & Family Auxiliary, will miss the chicken salad that Village Provisions prepared for the organization’s events.

“It was great,” she said, also praising the imaginative decorations the shop made for tables.

The owner of building where Village Provisions is located is selling the property and the store’s lease was not renewed. The shop had little more than a week’s notice of its closing, but Jeff Odekerken would not criticize the landlord in any way.

“I don’t want to say anything bad about her. She was always wonderful to us,” he said. “We will have great memories of this place.”

Village Provisions has been open for 15 years, with the Odekerkens running the shop for the last decade. In an open letter to customers thanked patrons “for becoming not just customers but friends.”

Though Village Provisions is now closed, the owners will see many of their customers again this summer at Marley’s Café at the Essex Island Marina. To ease the pains of departure from Essex Main Street, the Odekerkens are opening Marley’s early this year, in the beginning of May. The two aren’t yet sure of what they will do after Marley’s closes for the season, but they plan to continue their catering business.

Mike Berdensey, who has worked at Village Provisions for 15 years and also works at Marley’s in the summer, said he was looking forward to the opening of the café, but on the last day of Village Provisions wanted to focus on the crowd gathered to salute the store and its owners.

“It’s overwhelming. It just goes to show how much everybody enjoys Claudia and Jeff,” he said.