"My accountant says 'Sally, you do know this is a lifestyle choice and not a business.'" Sally Bayly is reflecting on the first year at Grounded, the café on Lion Street in Rye. On Saturday 20 June friends and supporters gathered to celebrate.
It's clear Grounded was never meant to be just another café. "People say its extension of my living room," she said. "That's totally fine with me! Our mantra is keep it simple. If you want soup and sourdough or coffee and cake, then you come here. If people want a variety of sandwiches and stuff then we just direct them to where they can find that."
The name is also a clue to what the cafe is all about.
"The whole point of Grounded is grounding people and making them mindful," she said. "I want people to walk in the door, forget about stuff, sit and play a game, have a game of chess, read a book, or chat, and not feel like they have to be rushed out the door."
So no takeaway coffees then.
"Some people come in and they go, 'Oh, why don't you do takeaways?'" she said. "My brilliant crew encourage them to sit for five minutes instead. And then they'll go, 'Oh, I'm really glad you made me do that.'"
Grounded is also a way of saying thank you to Rye following the suicide of her husband Michel in 2020. "The town came through for our family in an incredible way and supported us. I hugely wanted to pay back that kindness, but I also felt a strong need to create a community for myself. Michel had been such an intrinsic part of my life for the longest time and I knew I would struggle with loneliness on a personal level."
Over the past year Grounded has become more than a place for a coffee. There are yoga, meditation, Tai Chi, poetry, chess and book clubs, plus a therapy room upstairs. There have been book launches, parties, workshops and meetings. It's a place to meet new people too.
"One of our recent customers told me she had just moved to Rye and didn't know anyone. I said, 'Well, you've come to the right place.' It's happened several times. They've come in, started to hang out and chat, and made connections becoming part of a real community. That feels fantastic to me."
The reviews have been amazing she said, "Often they Google best coffee in Rye or vegan food. That's very gratifying but best of all people say 'I wish we had one of these in my town.' That is such a lovely thing to hear."
So one year in, what's next for Grounded and Sally Bayly? "More use of the therapy room upstairs, more workshops or events, and extending our opening hours. Maybe having a quarterly gathering, as we did on Saturday, to bring people of all ages and walks of life together to just talk and share food. But I'm not much of a planner..."
