Calgary café displaced by water pipe construction starts anew outside city

Angel's Cafe owner Cathy Jacobs at her new location near Crossfield, Alta., Thursday, June 18, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CROSSFIELD — For almost 30 years, Cathy Jacobs built up her Calgary coffee business, most recently serving java by Edworthy Park along the banks of the Bow River.

That was until the city’s main water line broke, and municipal officials wrapped up and hauled away her shop — lock, stock and latte — plunking it down on wood blocks.

It now sits beside a dormant Oldsmobile in storage near her new coffee house, 50 kilometres away, across from lowing cattle beside dust-tailed trucks on a gravel road.

“You don’t spend your life ... in one location for 28 years and suddenly you’re not there anymore and not be affected by it,” she said.

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The city said it would store the old café building for as long as three years, maybe less. Then, she could go home again.

She’s not sure she will.

“Our friends need us home,” said Jacobs. “(But) the world’s going to look very different (in) two to three years. The world looks different in four months.”

Her coffee story began in 1998, when she bought a food truck, then called Angela’s Ice Cream. It had a picture of a dancing hot dog on the side. She hated that.

Fate changed Angela to what eventually became Angel’s Café.

Jacobs said she had been speaking with a man who had considered killing himself but was stopped by an angel. After that, she kept spotting references to angels.

“I looked the word up and it just means a messenger. And I thought, OK, I can be a messenger. And that’s what I’ve been doing for 28 years,” Jacobs said.

The care became a community draw, a meeting point.

Then came the water.

Calgary’s Bearspaw South Feeder Main first burst in June 2025, causing water restrictions.

Less than 18 months later, it happened again, in the week after Christmas.

City council realized the main was effectively a dead main walking, and it was time to replace it. Mayor Jeromy Farkas promised an accelerated repair by the end of this year.

Angel’s Cafe was one of two businesses displaced by the construction.

The pipe repair is meant to be non-invasive, reinforcing the pipe without having to unearth it. But it meant having to pick up Angel’s Cafe and move it.

Jacobs said she went back and forth with the city in turbulent and unpredictable talks before the building was picked up and shipped out.

At first it was going to stay in place but later ordered moved. In the meantime, Jacobs had taken out grills and other parts of the kitchen.

Jacobs said she believes she should have been compensated by the city for the building rather than seeing it moved and stored for a costly future revival.

She said she’s also stuck paying the mortgage as the building collects dust.

Calgary’s real estate and development services team said the repair work includes the pipe near the café location and that the building had to be moved or demolished.

“The city took the empathetic approach to save the building while negotiations for the longer term were still ongoing,” it said in an email.

It said two residents continue to live in the area. The city delivers them water and they must follow safety rules when moving through the site. Another business was vacated while a third remains.

The city also said it’s unsure how long the pipe project will take from repair to restoration. It has paid for the removal and storage of the café building for up to three years. The café can then reopen at the same site.

The new Angel’s Cafe is a part of Irvine Tack and Western Wear, between the towns of Crossfield and Carstairs. A grand opening was held late last month.

Now that Jacobs has re-established herself, she doesn’t know if the new Angel’s will again take wing and return to Calgary.

Even if she stays, in three years the bones of the old café are slated to return to the first site by Edworthy Park.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 9, 2026.

Dayne Patterson, The Canadian Press