Walk into the Riverwalk Cafe and Coffee Roasters and one is immediately met with the rich smell of coffee, wafting up from the large roaster sitting in the middle of the store.

A case lined with pastries, muffins, fresh breads and desserts sits below the cash register and large menu hung on a back wall. Regulars return day after day to experience the freshly roasted coffee, sandwiches and homemade baked goods served up in the Railroad Square locale.

Lately, however, owners Steve and Jane Ruddock have been dishing out more than typical cafe goods; they’ve also started selling wine and beer and are working toward their goal of becoming a popular music venue and nighttime hangout in the city.

The cafe has always hosted local music acts, but Steve Ruddock said they’re hoping to expand those offerings as well.

Every Thursday, there are open mics, with live music on most Fridays and Saturdays. The unique thing about the Riverwalk, Ruddock said, is that all musical acts that perform are required to play original music.

He said it’s been amazing to see what local musicians can do.

“There’s a lot of pent-up creativity in the area,” Ruddock said.

On a weekend night, a band or local musician will likely be playing on one side of the room, and customers can be found sitting, listening intently, reading, working on art or having a chat in the cafe’s back room, ornately decorated with furniture and wall hangings that would seem appropriate in a medieval castle.

It’s a big step away from Steve Ruddock’s former day job as an attorney for nearly 30 years.

Ruddock said he’d always dreamed of owning a sandwich shop and that when the opportunity came up in 2010 to purchase the Riverwalk Cafe from its former owner, he jumped on it.

“I’ve always been a foodie and have always appreciated good coffee,” he said.

And while the state and the country were in the midst of an economic downturn at the time, he said he was confident his cafe would succeed.

“People still like their comforts,” Ruddock said. “They may forego larger purchases during a recession, but they love to have their comforts.”

For Jane Ruddock, who works as a speech pathologist at city schools, opening up a cafe was never a dream of hers, but she was quick to get on board.

“We knew this was something he had to do,” she said of her husband. “We put 100 percent into it. He’s always thinking of new menu items. This wasn’t my goal, but when this came up, because of everything we loved, it seemed like the perfect place.”

So far, business has been strong, and the couple said they’ve got their eyes set on the future of the business, hoping to draw in larger crowds at night with the recent addition of alcohol sales and by introducing a “night bite” menu.

While the couple would eventually like to expand the cafe, for now they are working within the space they have, considering staying open later, adding gluten-free baked goods and beginning to look for retail locations to sell their coffee.

It may be a lot of work, they said, but it doesn’t usually feel like it.

“It’s hard work, but you meet such amazing people,” Jane Ruddock said.

From young people to the elderly, Ruddock said the cafe has attracted plenty of regular customers and that it’s beginning to become its own community within the downtown community.

“The best part is that community of people,” she said. “People from all different walks of life, it’s just really wonderful.”

A sample of that community was hanging out at the cafe on a recent Saturday, listening and munching as a guitarist and singer performed his own songs and told a few wild stories.

For 23-year-old Hudson native Jeffrey Francoeur, the cafe has become a second home, and the Ruddocks have become friends. He plays often during the open mic nights, and his band is having an album release party at the Riverwalk this week.

“I’ve fallen in love with this place,” he said, sipping coffee. “A lot of it is the environment, and the people that work here. They’ve been able to pull together all different people, artists, people who like to enjoy art. It’s a no-judgment zone.”

He said the cafe’s
original-music-only policy has pushed him as a musician and has helped him get to know other artists better.

Nashua resident Sydney Walker, 22, agreed.

Walker had been to the Riverwalk a few times before she stopped in on a recent weekend but said she would be sure to come back more often after her experience there that night. She was working on some drawings and other artwork at one of the tables when Steve Ruddock walked over to her.

She said she thought he was going to ask her clean up and not take up so much space in the cafe and was shocked when he complimented her work and suggested she display some of it on the counter.

“This place was such a lucky find,” she said. “It’s such an awesome community, very welcoming.”

The food helps, too, Walker said, describing the cafe’s breakfast burrito as “one of those things that’s automatically a favorite food.”

It’s people like this, the Ruddocks said, who make them happy they decided to buy the Riverwalk, and the community of customers that make them want to not only stay in business, but improve and grow as well.

“We’re creating a different scene here, I think,” Steve Ruddock said. “The kind of place that people will walk three or four blocks to come see us.”

Danielle Curtis can be reached at 594-6557 or dcurtis@nashua
telegraph.com. Also follow Curtis
on Twitter (Telegraph_DC).