The former Hired Hand Brewing taproom at 35 Green Street in Vergennes has sat empty since Antidote returned downstairs and subsequently closed in 2024. This summer, the upstairs bar will become Big Heart Social.
Cofounder and self-proclaimed “sparkle princess” Shiloh Lawrence wants the café-bar and coworking spot to be a “local third space, a community hangout,” she said. “It’s somewhere you can just go to exist without feeling like you need to do something or invest your life savings.”
Big Heart Social will occupy two-thirds of the upstairs, which is now sealed off from the restaurant below. Lawrence, 37, is “brightening and softening the space,” she said, with vivid colors and furniture “like you’d have at home.’ A new counter will soon be installed on the wraparound deck out front.
Exact hours are still TBD, but Lawrence plans to offer coffee and a few breakfast food items — including house-baked biscuits and hot-and-ready breakfast sandwiches — from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. On Friday and Saturday, she hopes to remain open until 10 p.m., serving beer, wine, canned cocktails, espresso, tea and other nonalcoholic drinks alongside a small rotating food menu.
A separate weekday coworking space in the back will operate on a membership system, becoming additional bar seating in the evenings.
Lawrence was seeking office space for her software development business in Addison County when her wife and cofounder, Taylor Morley, encouraged her to follow her decade-long dream of opening a community hub. Morley, who will keep her full-time job, has “been my thought partner” and driven menu development, Lawrence said.
If all goes well with construction and permitting, Big Heart Social’s grand opening will coincide with Vergennes’ Big Pride in the Little City celebration in late June.
Big Heart Social is “very queer-forward and will be a safe space for trans and queer people,” Lawrence said. “But everybody who is willing to approach that with an open mind is welcome and encouraged to come join us.”
Follow Big Heart Social on Instagram for updates.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Big Heart Social to Open in Vergennes”
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