|Around Centreville|
A new welcome at the
New owner Elizabeth Moro takes over and plans plenty of changes By Ken Mammarella Contributing Writer On the same day last year, Centreville resident Les Tronzo and real estate broker Ian Bunch separately suggested that Elizabeth Moro buy the Centreville Cafe. Yes, Moro knew it: her brokerage office at Brandywine Fine Properties Sotheby’s International Realty is just 500 feet away. No, her LinkedIn bio lists no restaurant experience. But the cafe meshes with her upbringing as one of 12 children and philosophies expressed in “The Civil Graces Project,” her 2020 book about sharing good food and ideas and building community. “We need to make space for everyone at the table,” she said in an interview at the cafe. “Food is one of the things that connects us. It’s part of our heritage. Maybe we can rehumanize each other when we gather. You can’t be at war with each other when you’re sitting at the same table.” 54
Greenville & Hockessin Life | Summer 2022 | www.ghlifemagazine.com
So Moro bought it. She took over the cafe and Montrachet Fine Foods, its catering operation, on Nov. 1, and it’s a good thing she rethought the décor in such a homey way, filled with family treasures and items from bygone eras that she and her husband Vince Moro have collected. That’s because she’s devoting a lot of time there. On one pressured evening before Christmas she stayed working until 2:30 in the morning – and then returned after just an hour-long nap. “We spent so much time here that we wanted it to feel at home,” she said. For customers, too. ‘The Civil Graces Project’ Tronzo, a longtime friend of Vince, made his suggestion when Moro stopped by his garage sale. Moro had recently made news running for Congress in Pennsylvania, a campaign that she dishearteningly ended because of redistricting. “She has so much energy, so much get-go,” he said. “She loves people, and she needed to have some forward motion. So I just threw the idea at her.”
