On the Run coffee shop marks 40th anniversary

LAKEVILLE —  It was 1983; there was no Patco, no Sweet Williams, no Provisions, no Starbucks and no Dunkin Donuts in Canaan, but near the corner of Ethan Allen and Montgomery streets in Lakeville, there was a cafe called On the Run, serving donuts and coffee.

This year, on Oct. 23, the shop turned 40, and its former owner says that, even though its current owner has made improvements here and there, very little has changed. And that’s the beauty of it.

“Many things stayed the same. Many, many things,” said Sandra Oliver, On the Run’s founder, who ran it for 11 years and then sold it to her niece, Becky Redmond Sherwood, who would later sell it to another Lakeville native and its current owner, Brenda Sprague. But it was only about five years ago that Sprague took Oliver’s writing off the chalkboard; Oliver is still excited about the business — and about the wins it has had in the decades since she left.

Over the years, On the Run has sponsored a local men’s softball team, as well as a women’s team called The Blueberry Muffins. It also hosted the town’s first-ever scarecrow contest, which would go on to become an annual tradition.

“For those people who go there, it’s an icon,” Oliver said.

It started, like many things do, by chance.

In the early 1980s, Oliver was working in Canaan as a social worker at an adult daycare. On her way to work, she would stop at a little place nearby and pick up donuts for the staff of six. It was called S&S Bakery.

“The building is still there, across from Collin’s Diner in Canaan, on the right,” she said. 

It wasn’t actually a bakery, per se, but rather a retail satellite that sold donuts baked at the actual S&S Bakery in Winsted. The extent of the shop was a narrow entryway and a huge bakery case with donuts and coffee, but Oliver said she remembers being intrigued by the way its owner, named Diane, always seemed to be having a good time. 

And when Oliver’s younger sister — she comes from a family of seven — announced her plans to open a small bakery similar to S&S, Oliver saw it as an opportunity to flex her entrepreneurial muscle without leaving her full-time job just yet. She found a little alcove, which measured about 196 square feet, next to the shop’s current location, paid the rent, painted the walls and bought the coffee and the cups.

“I knew it was just going to be a good thing,” she said.

But five days before it was slated to open, Oliver said her sister had second thoughts about a job that requires early mornings, seven days a week, and she backed out of the deal.

With too much invested to just let go, Oliver phoned a friend, a career waitress in Falls Village, who came to help, and they made it work; two weeks later, on their opening day, they made $100.

“We were so excited. Selling coffee and donuts, we made $100, and that’s back with those prices,” Oliver said. “That was monumental to me.” It was only a few years before Oliver would leave her job as a social worker to manage On the Run full-time.

When the building next door, once a children’s store called Bubbles and Bows, went on the market in 1987, On the Run was able to expand from the small alcove into the bigger spot, where it still stands today. They were able to sell more than just coffee and donuts, too — baskets from Sandra’s side gig with her soon-to-be sister in law, and light fare on a new lunch menu. And more donuts and coffee than ever before.

Back in the early years, the shop was sourcing upward of 20 dozen donuts from S&S Bakery each day. And when S&S eventually closed, those donuts came from Bess Eaton, and later Dunkin, in Torrington. Eventually, Oliver found a supplier over the river in New York, who would remain their vendor until she sold the business in the 1990s.

Now, “If they have two dozen donuts to start the day, they have a lot,” Oliver said. Sunday used to be the biggest day for business, with churchgoers buying dozens upon dozens after service let out, but for the last few years, On the Run has been closed on Sundays, and the community hasn’t seemed to mind.

“There’s so much choice now; there was no choice then,” Oliver said.

Now, there’s a donut shop in nearly every neighborhood and a cafe on nearly every block. The folks at On the Run have seen many such places come and go. Oliver named some of them: Auntie Ems, Green Cafe, the Daily Bagel, Harvest Bakery, Cheffreys, Harris Foods, the Four Seasons and Holly’s, among others.

But, through it all, On the Run has stood on its own two feet. What’s the secret? 

“They stay in their own lane,” Oliver said. “Becky and Brenda have succeeded in knowing that they can only fill a certain niche. They didn’t suffer that identity crisis that so many restaurants suffer.”

Again, very little has changed. The menu simply is not so different from what it was back in the 1980s and 1990s. It still boasts New England clam chowder and tossed salads, banana nut muffins and, of course, plenty of donuts.

And that’s what makes it special.

“A lot of it is people-driven. You have to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em,” Oliver said. “Every time you change what people think you are, there’s confusion, and so I think they did a really good job of not doing that. [Brenda’s] identity has remained true and strong. I think that’s the difference. I think that’s the entire difference.” 

On the Run is celebrating 40 years in business. Photo by Ollie Gratzinger