A cafe on the busy Feeder Road has announced it has closed “for the final time”, with its last day of service having been Friday, October 11. Blind Owl Coffee shared a message to its social media pages on Sunday, October 13, to announce the news.
In the post, the team said: “Hello Lovely Feeder Road customers, It is with a heavy and tired heart that I have had to make the unfortunate decision to close our cafe/shop front for the final time. Friday 11th October was our last day.
“We have been open again since May this year and between staff illness, bereavement and an inconsistent footfall of customers, it is clear that we are simply not able to continue trading in this part of the company.”
The message went on to say: “This does not mean that we are closing completely. We will continue to manage our e-commerce shop and all of our wholesale customers of course.
“As predominantly an artisan roastery, we’re going to concentrate on doing what we do best, which is roasting and delivering delicious fresh beans. Thank you so much to all of our regular customers throughout the years – we could not exist without you.
“It’s been such a pleasure to be a part of this local community and to get to know its residents so well. For all of those lovely customers who collect their orders, we will be open on Fridays for collections from 11am-1pm for you. If this doesn’t suit, please contact us at [email protected] and we will arrange a reduced rate delivery cost. Kindest of regards, see you online, Robyn & the Blind Owl Coffee Co Team.”
Robyn and the team also shared a list of places locals can get their “local sandwich and cake fix” to the post on Instagram, as well as hot coffee – signing off with the message to “keep supporting local, small businesses”.
It is not the first time that Blind Owl Coffee has made the decision to close, however this time certainly seems to be for good. Back in July 2023, the team posted a message to say that they would be closing the shop front on Feeder Road “for the foreseeable future” beginning on August 1, which was ‘ironically’ the one year anniversary of their closure following a fire, which they described as being “small”.
But they added that the reasoning behind last year’s closure was due to the fact they had “not had the opportunity to recover financially” from the fire “thanks to ever-rising business costs”.
Taking to the comments this time around, customers were quick to share their sadness at the news of the permanent closure of the cafe. One wrote: “So sorry to hear this, good coffee and such friendly and knowledgeable staff. If I lived or worked closer, I would have visited more often.”
A second called it the “end of an era”, while a third thanked the team for “many months of caffeination and chats”.