Café X Announces Closure of Last Location

After Years of Financial Struggle, Café X has Closed Both their Locations

NewsFranca G. Mignacca — Published January 17, 2018

“Our financial situation has become such that it is no longer possible to continue operating,” the café wrote on their Facebook page. “The café has been experiencing financial difficulties for several years now and we have tried everything we could to keep this project going.”

The café received a fee-levy increase in March 2017, from 11 cents per credit for Fine Arts students, to 35 cents per credit, in hopes that it would keep the café open.

“We have come to the point that we must accept that keeping Café X open is no longer possible,” the statement continued.

In a previous statement released in October, the café explained that their VA location was no longer “financially viable” due to an increase in food options around campus and the food sold at the café not being priced to indexation and inflation, an ongoing issue for the café.

The Fine Arts Student Alliance has announced the VA location will be repurposed into a student space.

Café X had also worked with FASA over this past summer to discuss new ways of revamping their menu options in an attempt to save the café.

In January 2016, FASA bailed out the café by providing them with a $12, 000 grant to get them out of debt.

In 2016, the café learned it had been undercharging students unknowingly for years, having not considered the costs of production and inflation. There had also been an issue with communication between generations of management, in which information about finances was not properly passed down.