Sunday Motor promises to be a welcome gathering spot for coffee and car aficionados, non-car lovers and everyone else.
Alexandra CloughPalm Beach Post
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Nick and Renee Vorderman of New Jersey are following a road south to West Palm Beach, where they are launching one of the nation's most unique coffee shops.
Early next year, Sunday Motor Co. will open at Nora, the $1 billion dining and entertainment district under construction on the north side of the downtown.
Sunday Motor promises to be a welcome gathering spot for coffee and car aficionados, non-car lovers and everyone else, the Vordemans said.
There's also the food: Coffee, egg dishes, toast flights, sandwiches and salads, served in a space brimming with auto-themed accessories and memorabilia.
Nora, short for North Railroad Avenue, features both new buildings and renovated old warehouses along North Railroad Avenue, just west of North Dixie Highway between 7th Street and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.
A cars and coffee shop coming to Nora
Sunday Motor will lease space in a converted warehouse at 7th Street and North Railroad Ave., the southern corner of a district planned as a hip but inviting new community gathering spot. Cafe owners Nick and Renee Vordeman say they're thrilled to open their second location, which they hope will be the same inviting place as their Madison, New Jersey, spot.
"It's a fun concept and a place for all," Nick Vorderman said.
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Like so many ventures, Sunday Motor Co. was created out of passion, opportunity and a little bit of courage.
Both Nick and Renee come from families that owned car dealerships: his in Indiana, hers in New Jersey.
After graduating high school in 2005, Nick left the Midwest to attend an acting and directing school in New York City. The struggling artist worked in bartending, hospitality management, and marketing.
Renee, meanwhile, worked as an interior designer.
After years spent rising in their careers, Nick and Renee decided to create their own business out of Nick's longtime idea to blend his passion for cars with his know-how in hospitality. In 2019, Sunday Motor opened in Madison in a former mechanics' shop.
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Under the best of circ*mstances, opening any new eatery is difficult in the first year. Throw in a once-in-a-century pandemic, and the challenge was even harder. But Sunday Motor found its niche and thrived.
Nick and Renee credit their varied backgrounds in hospitality, branding, marketing and design for helping make Sunday Motor so unique. Even Nick's arts background helped.
"Hiring is casting," he said.
As the name invites, Sunday Motor has amassed a following among car aficionados who like to take their vehicles out on weekends to show them off and gather with like-minded friends.
The surge in car enthusiasts is a global phenomenon, including in Palm Beach County.
There are private car clubs, a car clubhouse and social spot in Delray Beach, and warehouses for car collectors in Jupiter and West Palm Beach. On weekends, car collectors gather in parking lots at retail shopping centers.
Some owners of large private collections even set up chairs outside their warehouses in Palm Beach County industrial parks to visit.
In New Jersey, the Sunday drive to Sunday Motor Co. is a popular weekly ritual for car collectors, who bring their toys out of storage to visit at the cafe and chat about their beloved Porsches, Ferraris, BMWs and Mercedes.
(Nick admits to owning a favorite car, a 1969 Porsche 912, used mostly on the track.)
But the rest of the week, Sunday Motor is a gathering spot for all, Vorderman said.
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Sunday Motor Co.'s expansion is the latest example of the migration of new businesses to Palm Beach County.
After finance and corporate headquarters companies moved or expanded to the county during the coronavirus pandemic, retailers and restaurants started chasing them. The trend continues, especially at Nora, which is filling up with a number of Northeast-based eateries.
And in the case of the Vordermans, it means not only a business expansion but a family relocation, too, partially by happenstance. Last year, their family bought a house in West Palm Beach's Flamingo Park to visit with relatives in Jupiter.
After looking for design firms, they found ASD Sky, and noticed the company was designing Nora.
That was about two months ago.
At the same time, Nora leasing director Francis X. Scire was scouting for an unusual coffee shop to bring to the carefully curated Nora project.
Nora Sunday Motor coffee West Palm Beach location to add new touches
Scire said he sifted through more than 37 coffee shops to find one that he felt would be the perfect "third place," a place that isn't home or work but another setting for gathering.
Sunday Motor "is interesting and feels authentic," Scire said. "It's not just a restaurant."
The Nora Sunday Motor Co. will have all the elements of the New Jersey location, but with a few added features.
This space will be larger than the New Jersey location, featuring an expanded kitchen as well as indoor and outdoor seating.
The Sunday Motor spot at Nora also will have a license to serve beer and wine, allowing the shop to stay open until 9 p.m. so guests can linger into the evening and enjoy small plates of food, Renee Vorderman said.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer atThe Palm Beach Post.You can reach herataclough@pbpost.com. X:@acloughpbp.Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
