Pivoting to persevere
Happy Coffee and Wine was open for five months before crisis forced shift in operations
Since the world turned upside down this March, a lot of people have complimented us on our ability to pivot. A year ago, we would have rolled our eyes at this boardroom jargon, but now, it makes us smile.
As a team of three at Happy Coffee and Wine, we’re flattered that our clientele think so highly of us and our “lil’ shop. “You guys pivoted so well, and so fast!
It’s really genius the way you guys pivoted,” they say. Though we’d love to take credit for our nimble approach to lockdown, any changes we made to our shop were out of necessity and not genius. We adapted because we had no other choice.
Our doors had been open for all of five months when they were unceremoniously shuttered. We spent pretty much every dime we had building out our space, which we did essentially by our own hands over eight months in 2019. We don’t want to sound desperate, but honestly, owning a business is 50 per cent desperation — the other 50 per cent is mostly good stuff.
When COVID-19 first hit, we immediately did everything and anything that we could. We are millennials, so e-commerce isn’t such a mystery. We’re capable and creative and eager to be successful. We managed to persevere mostly because we were not rigid. Also it is easy to change something that has only barely begun to grow.
Here’s a little journey through all the pivots we made over the past year.
> August 21, 2018: We all live in Parkdale and wanted to open a neighbourhood café and wine bar, nothing fancy. A strip of King Street West in Parkdale felt right. We negotiated the lease for nearly five months and didn’t sign until February 2019. We learned that commercial leases are punishingly long and litigious and sometimes inane (one of the clauses we argued against was a requirement that we keep all our garbage in the basement until collection day — compost and everything). Eventually, we put our names on the dotted line and this big rectangle of linoleum and drywall was ours.
> April 9, 2019: We ripped up layers of nasty linoleum and sub-floor and got this knotty pine from some guy in Michigan, despite every dad we know warning us not to use soft wood for flooring in a commercial space.
> May 30, 2019: We got our keys on March 1, 2019, but our actual build out was delayed by nearly a month because of the building permits we couldn’t apply for without the lease.
> Oct.12, 2019: Opening day! It was such a thrill to finally open our doors.
> Dec. 13, 2019: Sam is an amazing home cook, but he had zero experience in restaurant kitchens. He managed to climb a massive learning curve and put together a banging dinner
menu for the wine bar.
> March 29, 2020: We opened our web-shop almost right after COVID-19 closings hit in midMarch, initially thinking we could sell at least bags of retail coffee for pick up and delivery. Pretty soon, the Ontario government announced wine-togo and we added that to the menu. Also, wee bags of Miss Vickie’s chips to satisfy the government demand that all take away alcohol be sold along side a food item.
> April 7, 2020: We did take away coffee for a week or two when bars first closed, but quickly shut completely. That’s when our café and bar transformed into a high-rent wine and coffee warehouse. We were moving a higher volume of products than our spot had ever moved when we were open as a brick and mortar shop, but at a lower mark up. We were super
busy and thankful for all the support in such an uncertain time, even with our profit margins slashed by about 250 per cent.
> July 24, 2020: Oh, how things change. We took our time weighing the decision to reopen for business, even though we could have done so by the beginning of June.
> July 30, 2020: One silver lining we’ll admit to is that wine-to-go is a big dream come true, and being able to add a new retail element to our business was an actual life saver during lockdown.
> Oct. 6, 2020: Patio season in October! Our back “patio” was actually a jungle/garbage dump when we first signed the lease. When we dug under all that dirt, we found a bunch of concrete slabs. Add a couple fences, gravel, some tables and twinkle lights, and we had a magic hide
away. Our adorable patio meant we could open in the evenings again. It was a short but sweet blessing. Our two-month patio season will pay for what we lose in the next three months of take away business.
The hardest part of the pandemic has been the choices we’ve had to make related to public health, a burden we did not expect and were entirely unprepared for (we’re still unprepared).
Here’s to the day we can get back to serving you drinks and snacks instead of protocols and hand sanitizer. Madeleine Hayles is the sommelier and wine writer at Happy Coffee and Wine.
Edward Anderson is the coffee boss and resident handyman at Happy Coffee and Wine.
Sam Kim is the cook, recipe generator, and full-time dishwasher at Happy Coffee and Wine.