Alayne McGregor
COVID-19 has killed a Centretown coffeehouse which had showcased many local musicians, poets, comics, and visual artists, as well as helping local community groups.
Pressed, at 750 Gladstone Avenue at Arthur, closed at the end of October. Its owner, Karie Ford, had put the venue up for sale a month before but had not found any buyers.
For almost a decade, the coffeehouse featured local and touring artists up to six nights a week. Bluegrass played every Monday; indie, folk, blues, new music, and jazz artists performed later in the week. There were regular improv, comedy, poetry, and trivia nights, and local painters displayed their art on the walls.
Jazz vocalist Betty Ann Bryanton, who organized several sold-out concerts at Pressed, described it as “such a hip little place” that was “so incredibly supportive of ALL local talent!
“They had managed to set up this respectful, concert-type venue. That is, customers came to listen to the music–another real treat! They could grab a homemade yummy deli sandwich, a glass of wine, and sit back and enjoy the show. For a listening venue with a cozy space that offered a stage, sound guy, food and licensed beverages, Pressed could not be beat! There really was no other place like it in Ottawa.
“I will miss their big stage that they decorated with area rugs, an antique couch and nice soft-glowing lamps. A lovely ambiance!”
The jazz vocal group Cuppa Joe performed at Pressed over many years, and appreciated the venue’s trained sound tech and minimal overhead costs. Its tenor, John Wilson, said he was shocked at the news.
“It provided a cozy, comfortable atmosphere for performers and audience members alike. It was always a full house for our performances, and a great space to grab a beverage between sets and hang out with our friends.”
Brett Delmage/OttawaJazzScene.ca
The venue also supported local organizations and nonprofits such as women’s and LGBTQ groups, offering them free space for grassroots events like political rallies, sign-making events, or environmental strikes, Ford said.
Ford, who bought the venue in February 2017, said that business had been good until the pandemic hit in March, although margins were never huge.
“It was humming along. We were doing fine.”
A quick switch to groceries
The pandemic affected the store “overnight,” closing its doors on March 15 in the first wave. But by April 3, Ford had reopened with a “walk, bike or drive thru no-touch grocery store” called Goods in the Hood. It operated two days a week for a few months and then just on Fridays. Many of her customers were there from day one to the last day, she said, and they developed a close relationship.
“It was hugely successful, especially the first three months. It was insanely busy. We could hardly keep up with it. I was able to hire someone back just to do that.”
Pressed also accepted takeout food orders and got a decent but not huge response, since they didn’t use the commercial delivery services. “It was of course super-appreciated but it wasn’t like serving someone and checking in how their meal is. It was not a very personal experience.”
For several months the store also prepared meals as part of the Parkdale Food Centre’s Cooking for a Cause program, and donated meals to the Dalhousie Food Cupboard and the Centretown Emergency Food Centre.
In the summer until the end of September, its patio was also open for food service “which carried us through. It was great seeing customers coming back to our patio.” Brunches were popular, she said.
But that gave the restaurant a “false sense of security. It was just enough to get cash flow going to keep on top of the bills. And then that slipped away.”
The constant crises and changes were exhausting. “You adapt to a scenario and then overnight everything switches, and then you pick yourself up again and OK, this is how you’ll do it. You try to be creative, and try to be super-energized, and come up with a new plan. And then it seems like that lasts for a week and then that one’s gone.”
“I can’t do this anymore”
Her biggest problems were certainly financial, she said, but “I’m also totally burnt out. At the end, I didn’t really want to pick myself up anymore. I was like, I can’t do this anymore. I don’t have the energy.”
By the end of September, “it was just not sustainable.” She wasn’t sure when the restaurant could be open for indoor dining, whether the important Christmas season would happen, “and for me looking forward it just looked like up and down, up and down constantly. It was that sense of no control.”
Ford advertised the business was for sale. She said she received lots of “wishful thinking” support and some interest, but no serious buyer. Because she was on a month-to-month lease, she could close easily.
For the next few months, Ford will help out at other businesses: shelving, packing boxes, and other simple tasks. “I don’t want any responsibility. I’m just going to take time and process this whole thing, and then pick myself up and get out there.”
She said she still owned the Pressed corporate identity and recipes and protocols, but had no idea whether she would ever reopen it elsewhere.
“Any time a business closes in a community, that hurts”
“Pressed pre-COVID was all about community events and music and brunches and just all that amazing stuff. But that seems a lifetime ago.
“I think any time a business closes in a community, that hurts. They’ve lost a place to gather, they’ve lost a good neighbour, a place to have fun and a good meal and a good chat. I think there’s going to be a huge hole and the worst part is that this will be vacant for a long time. With COVID going on, how fast are places like Pressed and the hundreds of others that have closed going to be replaced?”
She said she appreciated the community support, even hearing from one customer who had met his girlfriend at Pressed and had been hoping to propose to her at the restaurant when it reopened.
“Every day I’m getting dozens of emails, dozens of messages on Facebook and Instagram expressing their memories and their sadness. It did not go the way anybody wanted it to go, but I’m just so grateful for this community. Pressed gave out a lot of love but we definitely got a lot back.”