Mel’s Tea Room is facing permanent closure.

“We’re in the process of removing our belongings and the assets of Mel’s,” says co-owner Dave Epworth. “We could not sell the business as it was, which is totally understandable given the times. We’re going to liquidate what we can and try and keep our heads above water somewhat, on the personal side of things.”

Mel’s has been closed since February, when a leaky roof led to a ceiling collapse in the kitchen. Dave and his partner Wendy Epworth purchased the iconic Sackville diner in 2018, and had plans to work up to buying the building from then-owner Ken Mikalauskas. But the couple were unable to get financing on short notice this summer when Mikalauskas decided to sell the building instead of fixing the leaking roof.

In August, new owners John Ernst and Tyler Gay took over, and gave the Epworths two months to either re-open or sell the business. That time expired on September 30, and now the couple has until October 11 to recover what they can from building.

Click below to listen to the interview with Dave and Wendy Epworth, conducted at Mel’s on October 4, 2022.

‘It wasn’t for lack of caring’

“It’s devastating,” says Wendy Epworth, “not only to our family, but I know to the entire town.”

“We’re sorry. We’ve thought about this for months,” says Wendy, “trying to figure out how to salvage it, trying to figure out how to keep going, but just the cards we’ve been dealt, not just through COVID, but with the kitchen ceiling collapse, and being completely shut down since February… I don’t think many people could come back from that, and we aren’t able to.”

“It wasn’t for lack of caring that this has happened,” says Wendy. “We fought pretty hard. We fought for three years.”

Wendy says the couple had been approached by some people suggesting a GoFundMe campaign or some sort of fundraising to help save the business. She says they did reach out to various people, even exploring the possibility of forming a not-for-profit group to keep a version of Mel’s as a local venue. But the timeline didn’t allow for that kind of project.

“We just felt that the hope was in selling the business,” says Wendy, which they tried for two months, mostly marketing on social media. “We had some interest,” she says. “We had a few conversations that we thought could end in a purchase agreement, but they didn’t.”

Wendy Epworth choses to laugh (instead of cry) at her insurance payout of $1.40 for business interruption after a ceiling collapse closed their kitchen in February. Photo: Erica Butler

“Of course, on the last night, we had people coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘Well, what if I could help this way or help that way.’ But, you know, there had to be a letter of intent to purchase by midnight on September 30, and we did not have that in hand. As sad as it is, I think this is the end.”

Sackville’s director of tourism and business development didn’t comment on the permanent closure of Mel’s, but back in August Ron Kelly Spurles said via email that while he was pulling for the Epworths to find a buyer, the town wouldn’t “get involved with marketing private sales.” He said his usual practice was to alert the Chamber of Commerce and Opportunities NB about the sale.

The Epworths had also pursued a claim with their insurance company for business interruption due to the ceiling collapse, but the result payout was, to say the least, unhelpful. Wendy almost laughs as she shows the cheque for a grant total of $1.40. “It struck me as really, really comical that we went through the painful process of providing oodles of documentation to our insurance company,” says Wendy, “and this is what we got out of that process.”

The sign

Silver Elvis outside a lit up Mel’s Tea Room sign during the Sackville Buskers Festival, August 2022. Photo: Wendy Epworth

“We’ve had lots of people express interest in it,” says Dave, referring to the Mel’s Tea Room sign, which after 77 years is an integral part of Sackville’s downtown streetscape. “But again, it’s what do you do? Does it stay here and the next tenants gain the benefit of the brand? Or do we try and liquidate that, and try to turn that into cash so that we can, you know, pay some of our debts?”

“The sale of the sign is gut-wrenching,” says Wendy, “not just to us, but to a lot of people in Sackville.”

The Epworths says that Ernst and Gay have enquired about the price of the sign, so there’s a chance they could purchase it and keep it with the building, or that a new tenant coming in would buy it, but there’s no guarantee.

“Unfortunately, that sign is a major asset of this business,” says Wendy. “We paid good, significant money for the goodwill of the business, for the brand of the business. And so, to just walk away from that, to the benefit of whoever comes in here next… We essentially cannot afford to do that.”

“If the people coming in aren’t willing to buy it from us,” says Wendy, “then that essentially means that somebody’s banking on the fact that we can’t actually remove it. And that feels like we’re being taken advantage of, for sure.”

“It’s a very difficult thing to put a value on,” says Wendy. “So we’re really trying to figure out what that’s worth. There is value in being able to leave it, in a way, because I know that Sackville would really, really appreciate that. So we’ll see where that conversation goes.”

The future

Wendy says that the new owners have “brought a few people through” the space, one of which were thinking of running a restaurant. “But our understanding is that they do not want any of the equipment or assets.”

CHMA has reached out to John Ernst to find out about plans for both the Mel’s building, and his other recent Sackville purchase, the Wood Block, across the street. Ernst says he and his co-owner are private people, and have so far declined an interview.

Closing the chapter on 77 years of history

Mel’s Tea Room was designated a Local Historic Place back in 2006, though the designation doesn’t provide any protections for the building, since Sackville town council voted unanimously to repeal its heritage bylaw in 2018, having previously disbanded its heritage board.

This past summer, town council passed a new Heritage Grant Policy to make small grants of under $5000 available to owners of designated historic places in the town, for exterior renovations to maintain the character of their buildings.

CHMA reached out to the Tantramar Heritage Trust, but the organization declined to comment on the impact of the permanent loss of the business to Sackville’s built heritage.

Image: Mel’s Tea Room on Facebook

The Mel’s building is also known as the Cahill Block, and predates the Tea Room business by a number of decades. The Cahill Block was built in 1913, a year after a major fire burned the original buildings on lower Bridge Street. Then in 1944 Melbourne Goodwin purchased the building and renovated the bottom floor to accommodate his Tea Room, which had been operating elsewhere since 1919. The Goodwin family owned and operated Mel’s Tea Room until Roger Goodwin sold the business and then the building to Ken Mikalauskas in 2012 and 2017.

Over its 77 years, Mel’s Tea Room served as diner, coffee shop, magazine stand, intercity bus depot, convenience store and gathering place. Generations of Mount Allison University students and Sackvillians have frequented the spot, and in the 1990’s, it inspired poet Douglas Lochhead, who published Breakfast at Mel’s and Other Poems of Love and Places.

Even the Epworths have a Mel’s connection, long before they bought the business. “Actually, it was right over there,” says Dave, gesturing to a right-hand-side booth in the diner, “the first time I met Wendy.” The two spent many hours at Mel’s as teens, but Epworth is pragmatic about his nostalgia. “We have those memories. It’s not exactly the same place as it was when we were here all the time. But I can understand people being upset about the loss.”

“I don’t regret doing it,” says Dave. “Not even a little bit. I probably got a lot more enjoyment out of this place than Wendy did. I spent lots of time and had lots of fun with lots of people here, over the three years we were here. So I have that. And if that’s all I end up with out of this, I’m fine with that.”

Wendy has taken the loss hardest, having gone through “some black days” during the past few months. But the pair say they will recover from the experience. “We have a strong ability to cope,” says Wendy.

“There’s always irons in the fire,” says Dave, and indeed the couple have expressed interest in becoming the new operators of the Tantramar Civic Centre canteen, as former operator Mary Anne Oster, owner of the Snack Shop, steps back from the job. The Epworths are the only bidders on the contract which is being evaluated by staff, and will be decided by town council at their meeting on October 11.

“As a family we will be totally fine,” says Dave. “The COVID pandemic has affected many people much worse than us. So we’ll be okay.”

Mel’s memorabilia

Mel’s t-shirt design by Blackhare Clothing, with 50% of proceeds going to support Dave and Wendy Epworth. Image: Facebook

Some people in the Sackville community are mobilizing to help make sure the Epworths can recover financially. Nick Chase of Blackhare Clothing grew up in Sackville and always had an attachment to Mel’s. He’s also a friend of the Epworths. “It’s been really sad and disheartening to watch how they’ve struggled and lost the business,” says Chase via email, “and how Sackville has now lost Mel’s.”

One of Blackhare’s screen printed t-shirt designs features the iconic Mel’s sign, and Chase has decided to donate 50% of proceeds from sales of the tees to the Epworth family. “We just thought that doing this would be one logical way to help them out, if only just a little bit,” says Chase.

Dave says the pair is now in search of possible safe storage places for Mel’s fixtures until they can be sold or otherwise disbursed. “If we’re going to sell some of the memories of Mel’s, we can’t stick them in a container somewhere and let them just decay. That’s one of the challenges right now is trying to figure out where does the stuff go?”

“We’ll do our best to share what little bits of memorabilia there are,” says Wendy. “We’re photographing things. We don’t know how we’re exactly going to divest this place of the contents, but hopefully people will be able to get their little token. So stay tuned for that, I guess.”