{"id":120131,"date":"2022-10-06T10:09:34","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T14:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=120131"},"modified":"2022-10-06T11:22:25","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T15:22:25","slug":"its-wasnt-for-lack-of-caring-mels-tea-room-says-goodbye-after-77-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/its-wasnt-for-lack-of-caring-mels-tea-room-says-goodbye-after-77-years\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It’s wasn’t for lack of caring\u2019: Mel\u2019s Tea Room says goodbye after 77 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mel\u2019s Tea Room is facing permanent closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of removing our belongings and the assets of Mel\u2019s,\u201d says co-owner Dave Epworth. \u201cWe could not sell the business as it was, which is totally understandable given the times. We\u2019re going to liquidate what we can and try and keep our heads above water somewhat, on the personal side of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Click below to listen to the interview with Dave and Wendy Epworth, conducted at Mel\u2019s on October 4, 2022.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

\u2018It wasn\u2019t for lack of caring\u2019<\/h2>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s devastating,\u201d says Wendy Epworth, \u201cnot only to our family, but I know to the entire town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re sorry. We\u2019ve thought about this for months,\u201d says Wendy, \u201ctrying to figure out how to salvage it, trying to figure out how to keep going, but just the cards we\u2019ve been dealt, not just through COVID, but with the kitchen ceiling collapse, and being completely shut down since February\u2026 I don\u2019t think many people could come back from that, and we aren\u2019t able to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t for lack of caring that this has happened,\u201d says Wendy. \u201cWe fought pretty hard. We fought for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s as a local venue. But the timeline didn\u2019t allow for that kind of project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just felt that the hope was in selling the business,\u201d says Wendy, which they tried for two months, mostly marketing on social media. \u201cWe had some interest,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had a few conversations that we thought could end in a purchase agreement, but they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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\"A

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<\/p><\/div>

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOf course, on the last night, we had people coming out of the woodwork saying, \u2018Well, what if I could help this way or help that way.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sackville\u2019s director of tourism and business development didn\u2019t comment on the permanent closure of Mel\u2019s, 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\u2019t \u201cget involved with marketing private sales.\u201d He said his usual practice was to alert the Chamber of Commerce and Opportunities NB about the sale.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cIt struck me as really, really comical that we went through the painful process of providing oodles of documentation to our insurance company,\u201d says Wendy, \u201cand this is what we got out of that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sign<\/h2>\n
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\"A

Silver Elvis outside a lit up Mel\u2019s Tea Room sign during the Sackville Buskers Festival, August 2022. Photo: Wendy Epworth<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had lots of people express interest in it,\u201d says Dave, referring to the Mel\u2019s Tea Room sign, which after 77 years is an integral part of Sackville\u2019s downtown streetscape. \u201cBut again, it\u2019s 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?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sale of the sign is gut-wrenching,\u201d says Wendy, \u201cnot just to us, but to a lot of people in Sackville.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Epworths says that Ernst and Gay have enquired about the price of the sign, so there\u2019s a chance they could purchase it and keep it with the building, or that a new tenant coming in would buy it, but there\u2019s no guarantee.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, that sign is a major asset of this business,\u201d says Wendy. \u201cWe 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\u2026 We essentially cannot afford to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the people coming in aren\u2019t willing to buy it from us,\u201d says Wendy, \u201cthen that essentially means that somebody\u2019s banking on the fact that we can\u2019t actually remove it. And that feels like we\u2019re being taken advantage of, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult thing to put a value on,\u201d says Wendy. \u201cSo we\u2019re really trying to figure out what that\u2019s 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\u2019ll see where that conversation goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future<\/h2>\n

Wendy says that the new owners have \u201cbrought a few people through\u201d the space, one of which were thinking of running a restaurant. \u201cBut our understanding is that they do not want any of the equipment or assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

CHMA has reached out to John Ernst to find out about plans for both the Mel\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Closing the chapter on 77 years of history<\/h2>\n

Mel\u2019s Tea Room was designated a Local Historic Place<\/a> back in 2006, though the designation doesn\u2019t provide any protections for the building, since Sackville town council voted unanimously to repeal its heritage bylaw in 2018<\/a>, having previously disbanded its heritage board.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s built heritage.<\/p>\n

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\"A

Image: Mel\u2019s Tea Room on Facebook<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Mel\u2019s 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\u2019s Tea Room until Roger Goodwin sold the business and then the building to Ken Mikalauskas in 2012 and 2017.<\/p>\n

Over its 77 years, Mel\u2019s 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\u2019s, it inspired poet Douglas Lochhead, who published Breakfast at Mel\u2019s and Other Poems of Love and Places.<\/p>\n

Even the Epworths have a Mel\u2019s connection, long before they bought the business. \u201cActually, it was right over there,\u201d says Dave, gesturing to a right-hand-side booth in the diner, \u201cthe first time I met Wendy.\u201d The two spent many hours at Mel\u2019s as teens, but Epworth is pragmatic about his nostalgia. \u201cWe have those memories. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t regret doing it,\u201d says Dave. \u201cNot 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\u2019s all I end up with out of this, I\u2019m fine with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wendy has taken the loss hardest, having gone through \u201csome black days\u201d during the past few months. But the pair say they will recover from the experience. \u201cWe have a strong ability to cope,\u201d says Wendy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always irons in the fire,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a family we will be totally fine,\u201d says Dave. \u201cThe COVID pandemic has affected many people much worse than us. So we\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mel\u2019s memorabilia<\/h2>\n
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\"A

Mel\u2019s t-shirt design by Blackhare Clothing, with 50% of proceeds going to support Dave and Wendy Epworth. Image: Facebook<\/p><\/div><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Some people in the Sackville community are mobilizing to help make sure the Epworths can recover financially. Nick Chase of Blackhare Clothing<\/a> grew up in Sackville and always had an attachment to Mel\u2019s. He\u2019s also a friend of the Epworths. \u201cIt\u2019s been really sad and disheartening to watch how they\u2019ve struggled and lost the business,\u201d says Chase via email, \u201cand how Sackville has now lost Mel\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Blackhare\u2019s screen printed t-shirt designs features the iconic Mel\u2019s sign, and Chase has decided to donate 50% of proceeds from sales of the tees to the Epworth family. \u201cWe just thought that doing this would be one logical way to help them out, if only just a little bit,\u201d says Chase.<\/p>\n

Dave says the pair is now in search of possible safe storage places for Mel\u2019s fixtures until they can be sold or otherwise disbursed. \u201cIf we\u2019re going to sell some of the memories of Mel\u2019s, we can\u2019t stick them in a container somewhere and let them just decay. That\u2019s one of the challenges right now is trying to figure out where does the stuff go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do our best to share what little bits of memorabilia there are,\u201d says Wendy. \u201cWe\u2019re photographing things. We don\u2019t know how we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mel\u2019s Tea Room is facing permanent closure. \u201cWe\u2019re in the process of removing our belongings and the assets of Mel\u2019s,\u201d says co-owner Dave Epworth. \u201cWe could not sell the business as it was, which is totally understandable given the times. We\u2019re going to liquidate what we can and try and keep our heads above water…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":120138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,57],"tags":[19422,8466,2988,12161,19419,8335,19421,3619,19420,17675],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120184,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120131\/revisions\/120184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120131"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=120131"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=120131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}