05/31/2025
We first would like to say, it was not at all our intention to respond to the extremely low blows our past landlord has been sending our way. When we first saw he posted photos of his establishment in the windows, we knew it to be a rather blatant attempt to hurt us and our reputation, despite the 7+ years of respectful and responsible tenancy we exhibited homing our cafe in his building. Rather than to react, we chose to remain civil and ignore these attempts because we immediately recognized that it was a true reflection of his character and not ours. We also have invested so much into our community and love it dearly, and so we knew that our loyal friends, family and customers would see right through this as well. But, since it has been brought to our attention that people are beginning to post and react, some anonymously while also spreading misinformation, we would like to say a few things.
In all reality, we left the building in much better condition than when we first walked in 7 years ago. We spent long and hard MONTH cleaning the mess he had left from his prior business… all the while completely renovating the interior… all on our own dime. We didn’t take pictures then. We just went to work. We scrubbed the place top to bottom. We painted the walls, installed completely new flooring to replace the then existing tile that was quite literally crumbling, installed new light fixtures and completely brand new bathroom facilities, put in a drop ceiling, brand new windows and doors up front and, we undoubtedly kept the place clean and sanitary during our years of operating our business. Please understand that we had REGULAR inspections… every 3 months. Random, unannounced and not a single one that we have never not passed, and he himself, as our landlord, would visit every WEEK to deliver his frozen brats we wanted to keep in inventory so that he could make business too through our customers. If our kitchen and place of establishment was not kept to standard, we would have not passed inspections and surely, he would have had something to say during our time there or felt the need to take pictures then. But he didn’t. So don’t believe everything you see. Our business is our everything. We will not accept these attempts to sabotage it.
In all honesty, when our first location was ruined by fire, people were warning us about doing business with him. He himself complained about the city of Plano to us. But we looked past the warnings and decided to try. We truly didn’t have any issues, until he was trying to continuously raise our rent. As much as he had every right to do so, we told him that we are still recovering from the COVID pandemic and simply wouldn’t be able to afford to stay in that location. But he did so anyway. So, when we found an opportunity to invest what we had into our own building, in the same town we love and on the same street our customers know to come visit us at, we immediately knew it was meant to be. Rather than to be happy for us, he retaliated. He tried to take us to court to evict us and shut us down even though we were paying the rent. We spent money on an attorney and through the court process, were able to FAIRLY negotiate a move out date. We never asked for reimbursement for the renovations we did, we were forced to pay our side of legal fees during a difficult time for us because he couldn’t be reasonable with us, and we never received our security deposit back. All we wanted was to finish doing business with him on good terms.
With that being said, We are thankful for those who know us, support us and love us. We are deeply saddened by his actions, and by some of the responses we have been seeing, but we are committed to focusing all of our energy and time into making our new location one that can serve you all again. We are never failed to be reminded of the largely loyal community we are so blessed to be apart of and THAT is what matters the most in our hearts.
