Arthur and Anya Gordon, the founders and former owners of the iconic West Morgan Street restaurant Irregardless Café, are pursuing a new venture: an affordable, multi-generational housing development connected to their community garden in southwest Raleigh.
The Gordons own about 2.5 acres located across the street from Athens Drive Magnet High School that’s currently home to their Well Fed Community Garden. There, they work with a local farmer to grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs, raise chickens, and keep bees. They bought the land at a foreclosure sale in 2012 intending to grow fresh produce for Irregardless , Arthur says, and did so for years. Since selling the restaurant in 2020, they’ve been thinking about other purposes the garden property could serve.
The couple envision a three-story apartment building with older residents living on the first floor, families on the second, and dormitory-style or cohousing on the third. A street-level bodega could sell pre-made meals and fresh produce to neighbors and nearby high schoolers. Residents would be responsible for cultivating the garden, which would continue to exist on a smaller footprint…