The Closure of Carlington Coffee House

It is with the heaviest of hearts, that we announced the closure of Carlington Coffee House. The final day of cafe service was January 14, 2023.

Its been the wildest of rides to say the least. We've fought round after round of battle, and learned a laundry list of lessons along the way. We've decide to put down the gloves, and step out of the ring.

The Beginning

I started this business with Chris from an idea sprouted in my mind in 2016 by the Carlington Community Association. A local gathering spot that Carlingtonions and others could come to and enjoy a coffee. The idea was lofty and exciting, and was met with mounds of enthusiasm from everyone we spoke to. We found the perfect for building, name, and started building out our brand and plan forward.

Battle 1: City Restrictions

By 2018 we had filed our permits with the City and were immediately met with restrictions that would halt our progress. The bylaws applied to the street restricted us from opening this type of business in a residential style building. The City’s representatives offered that we proceed down one of two paths: 1) We take our quams with the restrcitions to the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board), armed with costly consultants, to make our case on why we should be allowed to proceed with construction. A path with an uncertain destination. 2) We build a new structure to house our business on the property.

Both options seemed equally daunting, and offered extremely costly solutions to our problem. I spent hours digging through City produced plans and documents, until I found two conflicting ideas that these plans presented. After numerous conversations with City officials, I was heard out by the City's planning staff, and the bylaw for the main street was adjusted, voted on in council, and ultimately passed in December of 2019.

Battle 2: Construction Challenges

Permit in hand, we began our construction journey January of 2020, pouring countless hours on evenings and weekends, as both Chris and I worked our full-time day jobs. Our supportive partners, April and Tejal, would also come by from time to time to help us lay tile, paint and settle heated debates between Chris and I. We blazed through most of the construction, only to be met with further restrictions, this time from the City’s building department. Our building inspector was adamant on us providing fire supression devices usually reserved for larger-sized buildings in our fit-up. We spoke with contractor after architect, and none could reconcile what the purpose was for these devices, given the small size of the building and style of heating. We finally found a gem of an HVAC installer that lent his time on evenings to install a rather peice-meal solution of fire-flaps that met the building inspectors requirements.

Battle 3: The Pandemic

Construction proceeded and finished, occupancy and health permit in hand, we took a breath of relief and gave ourselves a break on March 1, 2020. I took a family holiday down south, which consisted of mostly sleep and stretching. I returned to a completely different world. I returned sometime mid-march, and shortly after, the entire country descended into our first lock down. I recall telling Chris: “This won’t last long”. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We waited as the weeks went by, as lost confused as the next person. Dwelling in the uncertainty wasn’t doing us any good, so we pulled off the bandaid and decided to open for take-out service. We started with on-line only orders, placing cups of coffees and treats on a bootleg shelf that we fastened to the porch. We met customers who would become regulars and friends. We had hope.

Battle 4: Government Support

Running a business is hard. I know this. Running a business through countless lockdowns and constantly evolving health requirements is even harder. The hardest part of the entire Covid journey was trying to be accomodating to everyone in a world that got so divided over what they believed was true. I have a deep respect for both sides of the Covid sentiment. Over the 2-year Covid period, we as a business received little to no support from our Provincial and Federal levels. As luck would have it, we fell into support pergatory, as we didnt’ have financials from previous years, so showing a revenue decline was impossible, leaving us in-eligible. I understand the Government can’t help everyone, but it does suck to be in that boat.

Battle 5: Social Challenges

Early 2022 started with a glimmer of optimism which was slowly removed with the arrival of the Convoy. As a business owner that was hung out to dry by their government, I could empathize the anger that the protestors, but in the same stroke, as a resident of the City, I also empathized with communities that had their regular lives, safety and peace of mind taken and disrupted by hoards of strangers. Again, the hardest part of this whole was seeing communities further divided. From a business perspective, it also just took a massive bite out of positive consumer sentiment, which was just starting to make its recovery.

The Final Battle: Economic Challenges

The food business is notorious for its thin margins. The smoothest of operations with the savviest of restauranteurs can scrape out single digits profits. This past 18 months the cost of literally everything has gone up. You see it and hear it and read it, but it doesn’t register until you understand that a box of cups went from $80 to $125 in the span of 24 months. Layer that in with produce shortages, wage increases, property tax increases and access to capital that is costly and restricted, and you have an environment that is not business friendly. It’s a tough climate out there. We weren’t able to tough it out past this.

I have the utmost respect for the businesses out there in our community that are working day-in-day-out that are going to survive. They’ll survive because they are taking sacrifices, risk and relying on their communities to continue to come and buy the quality goods that they have to offer.

I think these local businesses are the most important ones because they slow our money down. When you spend with them, they pay their employees and suppliers who also spend in the community. The money stays slow and local rather than heading off to some corporate HQ who knows where. The most important part of these businesses is that they make life interesting. They know your name, they know your order, they treat their employees like humans and have the interest of the community at heart.

I think government of all levels need to understand the importance of these businesses and the impact they have on the community. Throughout the pandemic, it was these businesses that got left holding the shitty end of the stick while massive corporations were able to operate and profit. With corporate landlords coming in and scooping up property, these small businesses are also left paying higher rents and property taxes, which is a death sentence for most. I'm not saying I have a golden solution, but understanding that something needs to be done is a start, and understanding that these businesses can be a livlihood and for a person or family rather than just a profit center is a good lens to start looking through.

I think at this point I’ve said all I have to say. While I am sad to see this shop go, I know that there will be better things to come for the community in the future. It was a wild journey, and I want to thank you all personally for the support that you’ve shown us over the past 3 years.

--Bhavik