Thomas Breen Photo
Inside Shiru.
Molly Montgomery photo
Havenly co-founders Benjamin Weiss and Caterina Passoni: “Disgusted” by Shiru’s business model.
Outcry over the opening of a student-only downtown cafe has led to one of its suppliers to pull baklava from the operation.
The supplier, Havenly Treats, decided to end its relationship with New Haven’s new Shiru Cafe hours after the Independent published this article about how the business serves coffee and baked goods only to college students and bars access to the thousands of New Haveners who don’t have college IDs.
Havenly Treats, a Yale student-founded collaborative that helps train refugee chefs for food business jobs in town, had provided baklava to the new cafe.
Caterina Passoni, Havenly’s executive director, told the Independent that she was previously unaware of the cafe’s exclusive business model when her sales team closed the deal.
Not only will Havenly Treats end its contract with Shiru, Passoni said, but she as an individual also plans to help organize a boycott of the new cafe.
Furthermore, she said, Havenly Treats as an organization will be actively encouraging residents to bring their food and caffeine dollars to other local businesses besides Shiru.
“As an organization trying to bridge the gap between Yale and New Haven, this business model stands against EVERYTHING we believe in,” Passoni told the Independent via Facebook message. “We are currently ending our contract with Shiru Cafe and I hope that this puts pressure on the cafe to change its business model.
“We will be expressing our absolute disapproval of this model. I sincerely, as executive director of a nonprofit that helps bridge the gap, am disgusted by this model and its implications, and will be working on a boycott of the cafe moving forward. As students are not even here over the summer, I have no idea who Shiru Cafe is planning to sell to. This is discriminatory and offensive and against everything we believe in.”
Below is a statement that Havenly Treats posted to its Facebook page Friday afternoon.
It has come to our attention this morning that Shiru Cafe, due to their business model, only serves University students and staff, and refuses service to New Haven residents. Not knowing this, on Monday we sold our Havenly baklava at the cafe. We deeply disagree with Shiru Cafe’s business model, that contributes to widening the gap between New Haven and Yale students. We will no longer be selling products to Shiru moving forward.
If you agree with us, please join us in supporting local businesses that foster fair and inclusive growth in New Haven and at Yale.