History of Freight House Antiques & Cafe

The original structure of the Freight House was first built in the mid 19th century by its first owners, the Boston & Maine Railroad, as a functioning railroad freight house adjacent to the Erving Center Station, formerly the Box Car Restaurant. Its third and current owners, lifelong area residents Jeff and Rita Dubay, opened the doors of Freight House Antiques in the Fall of 1993.

The Dubays purchased the building with its contents: thousands and thousands of napkins, of all shapes, sizes, colors and themes. The couple hadn't planned to sell napkins to make room for the Antiques but, the Erving Papermill closed their napkin division in 1988, meaning the overflowing napkin inventory would eventually give way to the aesthetic & culinary delight that is the Freight House Antiques & Cafe that people from the World over know and love today.

The Cafe evolved from just coffee and muffins to the destination it is today because of Jeff & Rita's synergentic creative energy, their drive to be fully self-employed, and a mutally keen intuition for what Route 2 travelers (the majority of our patrons) wanted as they walked through the door.

The menu theme: "Like Mom Would Make" is the only way Jeff & Rita wanted food to be served. Rita is the mother of six children and so one could argue Rita knows a thing or two about cooking & baking, and what makes her Cafe menu so unique is that even a meal as small as a sandwich or a bowl of homemade soup, turns out to be a "comfort meal".

Rita's hand baked goods are truly "from scratch" with her famous (Featured Recipie and featured cover photo, August/September 2015 Cook's Country Magazine) "Mixed Berry Scones" at the Top of the Food chain at the lunch counter- because Rita and her incredible scones will be on the season premier episode of PBS's America's Test Kitchen, which aired in October, 2016!