Bee’s Knees, popular restaurant and music venue, is up for sale

When the Morrisville café opened in 2003, it helped usher in a sort of renaissance for the town — bringing in live music every night and showcasing a rotating selection of artists on its walls. The food came from local farms, and the locals became regulars.

Deitz Caroli said she wants to spend more time being a mom, instead of splitting duties between The Bee’s Knees and the 3-year-old son she and husband Jay Caroli have. Their son, Manny, has been a regular at the restaurant since he was born.

“As a woman, you feel like you’re either doing your family well or your business well, and both can’t be 100 percent,” she said. “I just love being a mom, and I want to give that 100 percent for the next 15 years.”

The Carolis — Jay is an architect whose practice is taking off — live in an apartment above the restaurant, and own land in Wolcott, where they have grown much of the food for the café. The restaurant is in a historic red-brick building on the south end of Morrisville; it’s one of the first commercial building a driver sees on entering town via Route 100.

Only the business is for sale right now, although Deitz Caroli said serious offers on the whole property won’t be discounted. The business is listed on the Northern New England Real Estate Network for $175,000.

Stowe real-estate broker Ken Libby is the selling agent for the business and said the 50-seat eatery is a turnkey operation, with all the kitchen, bar and dining room equipment needed to run it. The Carolis more than doubled the space in 2006, and made major improvements to the building before opening The Bee’s Knees.

“It’s a historic building and it’s in very good condition,” Libby said. “The restaurant has a very good history, won numerous awards.”

Lasting contribution

Even if the restaurant sells before it wins another award, Deitz Caroli will be going out on top. Earlier this year, Vermont Business Magazine gave The Bee’s Knees the award as the state’s top woman-owned business. And if it takes a while to sell, she said she is not about to run on autopilot.

“I want to finish strong,” she said. “I don’t want this to be that place that just closes because I’m not interested anymore.”

The Bee’s Knees opened July 24, 2003, and was the vision of Deitz Caroli and her friend Jen Edwards. The two of them took the “eyesore” next to Haymaker Gifts and demolished the bad parts and renovated the rest. Edwards died unexpectedly a month before the café opened, but one of her major contributions lives on: She came up with the name Bee’s Knees.

Deitz Caroli said that, when she opened, she just envisioned a coffee shop with art and music. But some of the culinary creations by her early cook, Blair Marvin, started moving the concept toward the restaurant side.

Prominent alumni

Talent coming through Bee’s Knees over the decade came from not only behind the kitchen line, but from behind the microphone.

Anais Mitchell, Dave Keller and Joshua Panda have all played there for tips and dinner, and are now popular fixtures of Vermont’s music scene.

Bee’s Knees kitchen alum Jeff “The Wandering Chef” Egan now manages the Blue Stone kitchen in Waterbury. And Aaron Martin is the executive chef at Plate in Stowe.

Last week, Deitz Caroli posted a few paragraphs on the Bee’s Knees Facebook page, looking back on 11 years. She wrote that she met her husband when he was a customer, and “our first kiss came when he was helping me make soup for the café.” She wrote that Manny spent the first three years of his life in the café, known by musicians and patrons alike.

“The lines between employees and friends and family are blurred and most of my friendships and community connections have come from life at The Bee’s Knees,” she wrote. “It’s a good life.”