Maglianero, which means ‘black jersey’ in Italian, is name of a new cycle café in Burlington, VT. The café, which is located just 100 yards from the Burlington Bike Path, has the goal of becoming the center of the cycling world in this Vermont city.
In addition to coffee and treats, the new café offers indoor parking for those riders looking to grab a quick pick-me-up, outdoor bike storage and even a bike wash.
“It is really a place to meet and start a discussion with people from different backgrounds,” says Jesse Bladyka, the café manager at Maglianero. “It is all about positive change.”
The café opened in late May of this year and has already become a popular destination for local riders, as well as a first stop for many bicycle commuters, who are drawn in for the handcrafted coffee and showers that are available for riders.
“We’re trying to be a one-stop destination for all riders,” Bladyka tells BikeRadar. “We offer indoor bicycle parking for people who want to swing in for a coffee. This way they don’t have to lock up their bike outside. They can come right in, grab a coffee and go.”
The showers also ensure that commuters can get cleaned up, change their clothes and show up to work looking fresh. The shop offers 15 spots in the courtyard that are available for daily use, providing commuters with a safe and secure place to lock their rides, plus a wash to ensure that the bikes can be as clean as the riders.
But at Maglianero it goes beyond just a shower and a place to get a cup of coffee – although Bladyka swears it is some of the best coffee he’s ever had.
“At the core of what we are trying to do is a modern mobility movement, which supports people that are thinking of mobility in different ways,” he explains. “We want all these communities in Burlington to have a place to meet.”
This movement is evident not only in the bikes in the racks, but also in how the café was designed. It is housed in the lower level of the building that houses JDK Designs, which is one of the backers of Maglianero, and a firm that has worked with SRAM and Giant. The café is thus designed to be bike friendly and evoke a bicycle industrial design, which Bladyka says is part of the modern mobility movement.
“There is a lot more than cycling going on,” he says, “but really communities should include bike spaces everywhere. We want to make it normal. We want it to be expected that you can be accommodated if you are riding a bicycle wherever you go.”