Deal in the works to sell landmark waterfront cafe
Ogden Point cafe fetching $800,000
The Ogden Point Cafe, built on a bare patch of rock at the foot of the Dallas Road breakwater 16 years ago and now a coffee and lunch mecca for tourists and locals alike, is changing hands for the first time.
Gail Patterson and Bob Lumley, the partners who launched the popular cafeteria-style eatery known for its soups, sandwiches and baking in 1996, confirmed they are in the process of selling to local businessman Ed Yang.
The deal is expected to close Monday or Tuesday.
The cafe had been listed for sale since August for $800,000 and Patterson confirmed on Wednesday it is selling for the asking price.
Yang, who owns a seniors rest home in Oak Bay, said the two sides will sign papers next week and indicated the cafe will continue operations, but declined further comment until after the deal is done.
Neither side talked about the current 25 staff at Ogden Point Cafe, although one employee said Wednesday all were given termination notices.
The deal involves only the business and building as well as a sub-lease involving the Ogden Point Dive Centre, which is expected to remain in the tin-clad building’s lower level. The land is leased from the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority which also owns the breakwater and Ogden Point terminals and cruise ship piers.
“We look at the cafe as an amazing accomplishment ... there was nothing there and we made it a [destination],” said Patterson. “We had so many loyal and amazing customers. Some would come every day.
“It’s nice to finally get out of the restaurant business, but I will miss all those great people who came in over the last 16 years,” she added. “I think the only complaint we ever had was the lineups were long.”
Lumley, a career commercial fisherman, first hatched the idea of a cafe in the late 1970s, noticing swarms of chilled and windswept walkers coming off the Ogden Point breakwater had no place to go to warm up or have a hot beverage and a bite to eat.
“It was one of those location-location things, a perfect spot,” said Lumley. “It caught on. It’s a pretty decent legacy, I guess. We had a lot of really regular customers.”
Lumley said the cafe attracts between 700 and 800 patrons “on good days and weekends.” During the week, between 300 and 400 line up for coffee, snacks and meals, he added.
The cafe seats about 85, and has room for about 40 more on the deck.
The partners originally signed a lease with the Canadian Coast Guard, which controlled the property in 1996, and have since had deals with the federal government and, for the past several years, with the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority.
Patterson is well known in the restaurant business. She operated in the Y-knot Cafe in the YM-YWCA downtown and the Railyards Cafe in the condo development on the Upper Harbour.
In 2008, she and Lumley listed the Ogden Point Cafe for $2.1 million, but had no offers near that range.
Patterson said at the time she was testing the waters after Barbara Pedersen sold her popular floating fish-and- chips shop, Barb’s Place, on Fisherman’s Wharf for just under the $1-million asking price in August 2006.
“It was always tough because of the [leased] land,” said Patterson, who turns 65 this year.
She said she plans to expand a small bookkeeping business and golf on a more regular basis.
Lumley, a Sidney resident, said he’s looking forward to retirement.