Marigold Theater in Easthampton now has its own cafe.

On Monday, Marigold Café celebrated its grand opening after about five months as a work in progress, adding a space to the popular venue where locals can grab non-alcoholic drinks and pastries.

The menu, which is all vegetarian, includes a variety of coffees, teas, muffins, cookies, and other pastries, including a few gluten-free options. As much as possible, owner Glenn Alper wants it to have local vendors and suppliers; so far, those include Woodstar Cafe in Northampton, Mocha Joe’s in Brattleboro, Vermont, and High Lawn Farm in Lee.

Alper also plans to open a kitchen at Marigold in the spring, which will expand the cafe’s available menu to include items like soups and breads. He’s also in the process of getting the cafe a liquor license.

“In different phases, we’ll be bringing in more and more,” he said. “This is kind of like the beginning of it all.”

The cafe will be open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on show nights from 6 p.m. to midnight. Alper estimates that the cafe can fit 20 to 25 people because they’ll have room to spill over into the theater if necessary. In fact, he’s bringing more free shows (where guests can donate to Marigold’s artist fund) to the venue as a way of drawing people in from the cafe.

Alper said adding a cafe to Marigold Theater will both widen the venue’s reach and meet a need, expanding its clientele beyond people who only go to Marigold for shows while also providing food options for hungry concertgoers. The theater is located in a cultural hub of Easthampton, so Alper expects that the existing foot traffic will be a benefit – as he put it, “People that are already on Cottage Street, we want them to stay on Cottage Street.”

Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.