The “open flag” that for 18 months has been flying in front of Kafe, the cozy bakery and restaurant just past the Grand Avenue bridge, is being lowered due to insufficient business, according to owner Duncan Goodall. But there’s still reason for optimism in the emerging neighborhood known as Quinnipiac River Village.
Kafe’s closing is bad news for the neighbors for whom Kafe, especially on weekends, has been not only a watering and coffee-ing spot —” and the only one in the area within walking distance — ” but also a hub for local meetings, announcements, art exhibitions, and much community building. The good news is that Goodall plans both to stay in the spot, using the bakery at the back of Kafe to produce tasty products for his catering business and for his other two New Haven shops, Koffee on Audubon and Moka, on Orange Street just north of Chapel. The even better news is that Goodall, a committed New Haven entrepreneur since the mid 1990s, is determined to re-open, but only when there is enough business to support it. When will that be? What prompted Goodall’s decision just now? And what is his general outlook on the state of business development in the Fair Haven and Fair Haven Heights area? Your under-caffeinated and distraught reporter (full disclosure: a Fair Haven resident and devotee of Kafe) had a chance to chat with Goodall as he delivered pumpkin bread, muffins, and — my favorite, the justifiably named heaven bars — between locations:
Why shut, if only temporarily, now? Unfortunately, there has just not been enough business there to support Kafe. I want to emphasize that I see it only as a temporary closing. I remain very optimistic about the area. It has great potential for development. It just hasn’t happened yet. What specifically hasn’t happened? Well, there’s just not that critical mass of local people who can support a caf√©. The wine store nearby is doing well, but that’s because they draw from a much wider area. A caf√© draws from local people and other local businesses. And everyday I see people and interest, but it has just not gelled. Specifically, I think a big contributing factor is the business build-out next to us being developed by the Schiavones, is just taking much longer than I thought. Is that what drew you to open up back in August, 2004? Yes. In fact, Joel Schiavone approached me and recruited me. He was very honest and up front about his plans for the area, and the other businesses he was going to bring in. It was very exciting. I have a background in market research, and I saw that people were being priced out of East Rock and Westville; they were going to be coming to Fair Haven, eventually. So I saw things just as Joel did. However, he was also candid about the caveats: financing and loans might take longer than anticipated for his site, approvals from the zoning board and other official bodies. One thing I’ve learned is that Joel was right: in development, everything takes longer. So I had no illusions and was prepared to persevere, and have for a year and half. I saddens me because I know — and I’m proud — that Kafe has meant a lot to local residents. But ultimately people vote with their wallets. That’s a fact. And I had to make a hard business decision. I’ve been supporting Kafe out of pocket for 18 months, which is as much as I can do now.
From a business promotion point of view, do you think you could have done more? Actually, no. I mean we really knocked ourselves out. We did flyers and various promotions, and we played around with varying the hours, opening later, opening early. We changed the product line in the store, offering full breakfasts, and then not breakfasts. When cars were backed up on the Grand Avenue Bridge, I even hired an attractive young woman to pass out special promotional flyers to the drivers. But, in retrospect, I think reaching out to people stalled in the traffic might not have been the best time to have them read about the caf√©! The last thing we tried was wireless internet. I did everything I could think of, but it hasn’t been sufficient, so far. Apart from a slower than expected pace of business development, is there any other impediment that you saw to the flourishing of the area? Yes, traffic. A business needs traffic, on foot and by car, but I have to tell you that in our case the traffic mess on the Grand Avenue Bridge has worked against us, ironically. You know the young woman I mentioned whom I sent out to promote us to those stalled drivers? I mean the people were cranky. I figured this is, unfortunately, a captive audience. But there’s captive, and then there’s captive. I even did some follow-up research on the communities they are coming from, and advertised there for them to get out of traffic and drop by Kafe until the traffic cleared. But you know what we learned? They were so anxious and worried about losing their place in the darn line. All they wanted to do was get across the damned bridge. I honestly believe that if the Ferry Street Bridge were reopened —” and that project is behind schedule —” then the traffic on the Grand Avenue Bridge would be good traffic for us. If the Ferry Street Bridge opens, Kafe could re-open as a restaurant; that in itself would be sufficient. I truly believe that.- * * * That’s one dedicated New Haven businessman’s view from the bridge.