Café Moxie up for sale in Vineyard Haven

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Cafe Moxie
The property includes a 49 seat restaurant, and two apartments on the upper floors. — File photo by Ralph Stewart

Café Moxie at 48 Main Street in Vineyard Haven went on the market for $1.25 million on Saturday, February 1. The restaurant is currently closed. The sale of the property and business is listed with Lighthouse Properties.

“My reason for selling Café Moxie is that I have an opportunity in a different part of the country — California, actually,” owner Michael Ryan told The Times when reached by telephone in Florida Tuesday. “The Island has been a great place for me and helped me start a business. It’s a wonderful environment and a nice place to live, but now that my wife [Marsha] and I have an opportunity to work and live somewhere else, we don’t want to run the restaurant as a satellite operation.”

Fire destroyed Café Moxie on July 4, 2008, only weeks after a complete interior renovation. At that time Paul Currier owned the restaurant and property. Mr. Ryan, owner of Island Woodworks, joined Mr. Currier as an equal investor in the Café Moxie rebuilding effort in October 2008.

The work was delayed by a drawn-out insurance claims process, town limitations on the construction schedule, and issues with NSTAR. On November 3, 2010, Mr. Currier sold his remaining share in the restaurant to Mr. Ryan, who undertook the completion of the reconstruction project himself.

The new 2,780-square-foot building includes a kitchen in the basement, a 49-seat restaurant at street level, a one-bedroom apartment on the second floor, and a studio apartment on the third floor with a rooftop deck with harbor views. Mr. Ryan reopened Café Moxie in October 2012, and the business was later approved for a year-round beer and wine license.