By Jim O'Sullivan

Bowdoin Street just lost some flavor. The Yellow Brick Road Ice Cream and Dessert Cafe, a community bright spot whose smiling owner infused vitality into the Bowdoin-Geneva business district, closed on Friday, September 12, less than two years after it opened in December 2001.

Erica Nunnally, who co-owned the café with her sister, told the Reporter Monday that she hopes to sell the business to someone who would preserve the Yellow Brick concept.

"If somebody wants to buy the Yellow Brick Road, it's theirs," Nunnally said. "They hand me money, I hand them keys."

A gathering place that also served coffee and baked goods, the shop helped enliven an area that is often painted negatively by media reporting merely on criminal activity, according to Davida Andelman of the Bowdoin Street Health Center, who called the closing "very depressing."

"I think the whole community's pretty upset about her closing," Andelman said. "In the short period of time she was here, Yellow Brick Road and Erica herself made an incredible contribution to the community."

Nunnally cited personal reasons behind her decision, which she made Labor Day, she said. An interior architect by training, she said she plans to pursue that field, but emphasized that she will handpick her successor at 252 Bowdoin St.

"The goal is to make sure there's a café of some sort there, that people will have some sort of community space there," Nunnally said.

"The plan is to do whatever is going to be best for the community."

Fernando Bossa, assistant director of the Uphams Corner Main Streets program, said Monday that he had spoken with a Roslindale bakery, and was in step with Nunnally in seeking to maintain a coffeeshop aura in the space."

Andelman said local merchants viewed the withdrawal as "a step back" for the business district.

"She's not your usual, everyday type of businessperson," Andelman said of Nunnally. "She's somebody that really has a commitment to the neighborhood, she's a community resident."

While Nunnally and Barros shop the Yellow Brick name around, across the street Andy Barros has rejuvenated the pizza-and-sub shop Pete's Pizza with interior and exterior renovations. Andelman called the improvements an encouraging sign.

Yellow Brick Road was a stop-in for Mayor Menino during his tours of the Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood. When he dropped by in April on a stroll along Bowdoin, he called the café a sign of "slow, but sure progress that's been made in this neighborhood."

"We are concerned when any small business does not succeed," said Andre Porter, deputy director of neighborhood development in the city. "However, we are still committed to maintaining the vibrancy of the Bowdoin-Geneva business district and we will work with Erica to find a successor who will complement the existing businesses."

"It's a sad day," Andelman said.