Oneonta's been buzzing lately with talk about the Twelve Tribes, an international religious commune (some might use another C-word) that has been accused of harboring the tastiest sandwich on Main Street. Back in April, I stopped by Common Ground for a spot of lunch. The melty, savory Deli Rose, stuffed with corned beef and cheese on a homemade onion roll, was calling my name. Sitting next to me at the counter: the original Deli Rose herself, longtime Twelve Tribes member Rose Beane, in town with her husband Ariel to help the new cafe get on its feet. So I did a Q&A on the spot.
Watershed Post: How many Twelve Tribes cafes have you personally helped open?
Rose Beane: Maybe ten or twelve. But that's including places that don't exist anymore, like the one in Nova Scotia. We just opened one in Vista, California a few days before this one. We have a place in Brattleboro that used to be a very famous restaurant, the Common Ground, it went out of business and we bought it. I usually get involved in one way or another. I do a lot of artwork.
Old school: The downstairs kitchen gets orders to and from the top floor via a dumbwaiter and a rather steampunk PA system.WP: How long has the Twelve Tribes been in the restaurant business?
RB: Our first restaurant was in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We needed a way to support ourselves, so we built our first restaurant, which was called the Yellow Deli. I think it was in '72. By the time I came into the community, in '76, they were just opening the fourth one.
The original standard we had back in the Yellow Deli is what we want to have now — our food, our atmosphere. The movement in the 60s and 70s, what happened to those people? What happened to what was in their hearts? We believe that we've found something very deep, very deeply in line with what we were all looking for back then. We just want people to be able to discover it if they will — if there's still something stirring in them that's looking for that. We want them to come in and fall in love.
WP: Is the restaurant a way to draw people into the Twelve Tribes? Do you get people who come in for a sandwich and end up joining the community?
RB: It's not like that, in the sense that people say: “Oh, you're just proselytizing, this is just a front.” There's no coercion, there's no
Light under a bushel: Baskets make pretty good lampshades. preaching, it's just not in that realm. It's a life. People respond to what they see in all kinds of ways. People who are thirsting for something, and they see this demonstration, that's what they're looking for. Others have given their approval as righteous people approving of other righteous people. Some have felt personally threatened and gone their way, and that's fine.
WP: The renovation you've done here is really gorgeous. How long did it take to do?
RB: Two or three years. The floor was under eight inches of concrete and wire mesh. It was a very dingy, dark bar.
WB: It's beautiful now.
RB: Some of the wood is from a barn nearby. These people took down this beautiful old barn, and they fully intended to reconstruct it, so they labeled each piece. Then they realized they were never going to be able to build it, so they donated it to us. On some of the pieces, you can still see the labels.
The Common Ground is at 134 Main Street in Oneonta, the former home of Freddy's. Check out their listing in the Watershed Post's local directory.
