‘I couldn’t catch up’: Fredericton café owner selling her business due to high costs

A Fredericton café owner is selling due to the burden of high costs.

After 14 years in business, a Fredericton café owner says making good, affordable food, while also paying her bills, has become nearly impossible in today’s economy.

So, Patti Hollenberg says, she’s had to sell her restaurant.

The trained pastry chef built Chess Piece Pâtisserie in the city’s downtown and expanded to include a café inside the Fredericton International Airport.

Business was good, even great, prior to the pandemic. But Hollenberg says the climate has since changed, there doesn’t seem to be as much traffic downtown and the cost of everything has increased.

“Paying people properly, trying to buy good ingredients, like just the cost of everything. It just caught up with me,” she said. “Bills, heat, you know, property tax. My property tax increased one year by 20 per cent. I couldn’t catch up from that.”

She says two of her main ingredients - chocolate and butter - have increased dramatically over the last few years.

But she’s wanted to keep her food as affordable as possible.

“It still takes three days to make a croissant, but at some point in time you need to question, okay, like, is $7 really fair? Do you really want to look and see your customers gasp at a $7 croissant?” she said. “My butter has increased 20 per cent. Should I, at least for my croissant, increase it 20 per cent just based off the amount of butter that I’ve purchased? I haven’t done that. So, I just get behind.”

A vice president at Restaurants Canada says a situation they’re hearing from many members.

Janick Cormier, vice president of the Atlantic region, says 41 per cent of restaurants across the country are not profitable right now. Which means they’re operating at a loss or breaking even.

“We’re talking double digit increases across the board, whether it’s food, labour, utilities, operating expenses, insurance. It’s an incredibly steep increase in cost,” she said.

“At the same time, the consumers don’t have as much money to spend on restaurants. So they’re tightening up their wallets. They’re not coming in as often. And when they do, they spend less money. So you can’t increase your menu items to make up for that increase in operating costs, because consumers are simply not willing to pay that much for a meal out.”

Hollenberg says the new owners – who will take over both the downtown and airport café locations next week – will continue operating the business. She says none of her current staff should be affected.

She lets out a big laugh when she says, after the sale, she’s intending to go on an ‘eat, pray, love’ trip overseas, to learn even more about food.

“Just see what I can see and just get excited about food again and then come back with a renewed sense of passion,” she said.

Hollenberg hopes to turn that passion into educating others about food literacy, where food comes from and how accessible cooking can be.

But she’s mourning the moments that made her love operating a café.

From watching a woman with dementia excitedly chat with her husband every morning over breakfast sandwiches, to building specialty birthday, anniversary and retirement cakes.

“Getting to be a part of someone’s day was not lost on me,” she said.

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