Ed Knuckles is the sole owner of Knuckles Truffles, a gourmet chocolate shop tucked into the corner of a yellow townhouse on York Street.

Knuckles managed to keep the shop open throughout an entire year of the pandemic, and chocolates sales have done well despite COVID-19.

He did unfortunately have to downsize his café, which had just nicely hit its stride.

“We were just getting up to double booking, it just starting to catch on, and then COVID came and everything just dropped off,” Knuckles recalls. “It was a very difficult decision to make [to close the café]. Opening up a café is quite an expensive proposition, and as long as it was open, I could pay all my loans off and my debt.”

The government required sales figures from 2019 when determining profit loss and COVID-19 assistance, which meant that Knuckles wasn’t able to claim anything.

2019 was unfortunately one of his worst years financially, and the government refused to review figures from any other year.

So Knuckles has been getting by with only his own savings and the CERB.

“It was the luck of the draw for me. If I could have compared them to the year before [2018], which is which was our best year, then I could have shown the loss.”

Knuckles says that since he’s a chocolatier, his services aren’t exactly “essential” and may not be a priority for people on a pandemic budget.

“I don’t expect people to be crashing the doors down every day,” laughs Knuckles, and says he has a steady income with big booms around “chocolate holidays.”

Knuckles says that perhaps he needs to compromise with technology in order to expand the business, since online take-out and delivery services are expanding during COVID-19.

He is not a huge fan, but understands that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Ed is grateful for the emotional support throughout this difficult year, including his partner Stan who has been by his side.

“Sackville is a lovely little town that way.”