Northwestern students are reacting with surprise and sadness after returning from Spring Break to find popular study spot Cafe Ambrosia closed.
“I guess I was just really disappointed and really surprised because it always seemed really busy when I was there,” said Music sophomore Max Potter. “It was impossible to find a seat.”
The coffee shop closed March 22 due to a lack of business, former employees said.
“It kind of got to be too much and we weren’t making a profit anymore,” said Weinberg sophomore Corinne Ellis. “So we had to close, which kind of sucks.”
At the cafe, 1620 Orrington Ave., the windows and front door are covered with brown paper and blue duct tape. The trademark green awning has been taken down, and the shop’s name has been replaced with a sign declaring the property “for rent.” The owner and general manager could not be reached.
The sight of the boarded-up business distressed many students, said former employee Lauren Zacharias.
“A lot of people are coming back and running to me and saying, ‘Why is this happening? I don’t know where I’m going to study,'” said Zacharias, a Music sophomore who worked there for a year and a half.
But most students still don’t know about the closing, said Zacharias, who said it “kind of came out of nowhere.”
The closing was unannounced, and the news has spread slowly through word of mouth and Facebook status updates.
The building is now available for lease, said a representative for Robinson Rentals, which owns the property. The company is optimistic the location will be rented again soon despite the poor economy.
Meanwhile, two other nearby coffee shops – Unicorn Cafe, 1723 Sherman Ave. and Kafein, 1621 Chicago Ave., said they have seen business increase since Ambrosia closed.
“We’ve been exponentially busier than usual,” said Unicorn employee Julia Detchon.
Detchon added she didn’t think the business she works for has been significantly slowed by the economy.
“I guess I can’t really conjecture about whether we’re doing better or worse, but I don’t think we’ve lost business by any means,” she said. “We have really loyal dedicated people that come in every morning, so I don’t think it’s slowed them down.”
In a city crowded with coffee shops, Ambrosia was supposed to be a unique space.
When owner Mike Renollet and general manager Matt Spenoik opened the cafe in the summer of 2005, they made clear that it was to be specifically geared toward college students. Neither could be reached for comment.
The closing is an indication of the rough economy, said Ellis, adding that in the past few months, students still studied at the cafe but the economy forced some patrons to cut back.
“We have our share of vacancies in downtown Evanston,” said Carolyn Dellutri, the executive director of EVMark , an organization responsible for “marketing and managing downtown Evanston.” “I would say across the country, downtowns are seeing this. It’s a sign of the economic times.”
It also may be a bad sign for the recent attempt to revitalize the downtown part of Orrington Avenue. The area, which is not as often frequented as other parts of downtown, proved to be a liability to the business, Ellis said.
But there may have been more to the closing than the economy or location, said Jonathan Perman, executive director of the Evanston Chamber of Commerce.
Perman called Ambrosia’s business model “risky” and “flawed,” and said the closing did not come as a surprise to him.
“They took a fairly large amount of square footage and used a majority of it for seating, lounging and an art gallery,” he said. “They were essentially rolling the dice that people would spend enough time in those comfortable seating areas to offset the cost. That’s a tough thing to do with a tough economy and a very competitive market.”
Still, employees and students said the cafe was a special place.
“It’s a shame it’s not going to be there anymore,” Ellis said. “I think it will be missed. I know I’ll definitely miss it.”
