In Carlisle, the sociable yearn for a place to gather

Ferns Country Store owner Larry Bearfield (left) with Tom Raftery. (ESSDRAS SUAREZ/GLOBESTAFF)

"Your place or mine?"

In Carlisle, this is no cheesy pickup line. Instead, it's a fair reflection of what are often the only options for an in-town gathering, especially during the cold months.

Despite the generally old-fashioned ambience and community spirit of this town of 5,300 located 25 miles northwest of Boston, Carlisle lacks any kind of indoor establishment where locals or visitors can sit down together over a beverage or a bite to eat.

No pub, no coffee shop, no café.

It's not that residents are too reclusive or introverted to want to get together once in a while - it's all about the infrastructure. But the limitations of private septic and wells throughout the town are only the beginning. Add parking concerns, a limited water supply, and some of the strictest zoning laws in the Commonwealth, and it's easy to understand why the transfer station and the elementary school parking lot tend to be the public locations where townspeople can most often be found chat ting and exchanging ideas.

And the issue goes beyond satisfying the craving for a tall skinny mocchachino. Whether their preference runs to designer coffee beverages or frosty brews, most locals concur that community life would surely benefit from a gathering spot of some kind.

Jonathan Beakley, who has lived in town for eight years, said he would love to see a pub or coffee shop in the center of Carlisle.

"But when you consider the issues of private wells, outrageously expensive real estate values, construction costs, labor costs, and property taxes," the 39-year-old conceded, "I'm not holding my breath."

It's a loss many other residents - new and long-term alike - bemoan. Adjoining towns offer a range of options - there are at least three Starbucks within 10 miles; there's the Acton Jazz Café for evening culture, and the Colonial Inn in Concord or the Westford Grille for an after-dinner drink. Dining options abound in nearby towns as well. But going elsewhere to get together doesn't address the sense of community union that Carlisle residents want.

"I just returned from England, which has so many rural villages that remind me of Carlisle. Except that their locals gather at pubs, which are the lifeblood of small communities," said Town Moderator Tom Raftery.

Perhaps no one is closer to the pulse of the issue than Larry Bearfield, who along with his wife, Robin Emerson, is proprietor of the town's general store, Ferns Country Store.

Bearfield concurs with Beakley that, from a permitting perspective, the biggest obstacles are that the town has private wells, private septic systems, and limited parking. Bearfield and Emerson improved upon the situation a few years ago by building a brick-lined outdoor piazza next to their small shop, which sells coffee and sandwiches but has no indoor seating.

"You can see by the use the piazza gets that people appreciate having a place to sit down for a bite," Bearfield said, adding that on summer and fall weekends, it's hard to find an empty chair or unused table on the 30-seat patio.

But as far as building an indoor seating section, Bearfield said, the challenges are many and include financial and logistical obstacles.

The couple has been working for the past two years to get permission to sell beer and wine. They've succeeded at the initial steps toward revoking the town's "dry" status, but still have another ballot cycle to go through before any such drink will augment their inventory. And though Bearfield was recently granted approval from the Board of Health to build an addition to the store, it came with the explicit provision that it not be used for seating.

There's good reason, said Linda Fantasia, the town's health agent.

She said the existing septic system at Ferns provides only 21.7 percent of the gallons-per-day flow that would be required for a public restroom, and there is no way to expand it. Moreover, the state has not classified the existing well at Ferns as public water supply and would need to be significantly upgraded to be reclassified as such.

The same problem would apply to any conceivable location in the town center, she said.

Bearfield said he still hopes to put tables and chairs inside his space - he just believes it might take a while. After all, he managed to accommodate the requests from customers - particularly bicyclists passing through town - for a bathroom by installing a portable lavatory behind the store, funded by donations from neighbors.

Even those residents who have merely a personal rather than business-related stake in the issue devote considerable time to coming up with possibilities.

As moderator of the online discussion group City in the Woods, devoted to issues of interest to Carlisle residents, Ed Fields sees the topic arise periodically. Earlier this summer, ideas posted by residents ranged from converting the now-empty Highland School building into a pub, to using the small wooden building next to the town's cranberry bog as a coffee house.

"There are definitely a lot of townspeople who have expressed the wish to see some kind of plan take shape," Fields said. "Discussion always runs along the lines that a community gathering spot is a clear and present need in Carlisle."

But neither of the two properties is a likely possibility: the Highland building stands on school property, and the cranberry bog structure is town-owned and borders on wetlands. Moreover, neither location has sufficient space for parking.

For now, those who want to break bread together can bask in the sun on the Ferns piazza or simply grab a bench on the front lawn of the library. Come winter, those options are far less appealing, though Bearfield remarked that his outdoor seating never goes completely unused.

The town attracts a lot of cross-country skiers, "and after exercising outdoors all day, they're perfectly happy to spend a little more time outdoors," he said. "People always say, wouldn't it be great to have a pub, but it's really more about the desire to connect.

"Over a cup of coffee or over a bagel or over a glass of beer, it doesn't really matter. We just need a place to gather."

Nancy Shohet West can be reached at nancyswest@msn.com.