Courtenay cafe forced to close

ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post

OUT OF BUSINESS: Espressoholic owner Majida Tooma and husband Leighton Dunlop, manager of the Courtenay Place cafe.

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Another Wellington institution is on its way out. After 18 years in the same Courtenay Place location, Espressoholic cafe has been given a month's notice by its landlord to close up shop, manager Leighton Dunlop says.

For Mr Dunlop, who has managed the cafe since it opened 21 years ago on Willis St, it is the end of an era that began when "real coffee" first came to Wellington.

"We've had everyone through our doors, from prime ministers to bums.

"We opened at the same time as [Cuba Street cafe] Midnight Espresso. I came back from overseas and you couldn't get espresso, there were no espresso machines in Wellington."

Mr Dunlop was preparing to break the news to the cafe's loyal regulars, after unsuccessfully appealing to his landlord for more time.

"We applied for an extension, but he just won't budge. He won't even give us a reason, after 18 years."

The bad news was delivered last week and Mr Dunlop said the cafe would stay open for another week or so before it was cleared out for good.

He put a sign in the window yesterday thanking customers for their loyalty. He said rent increases were not to blame for the closure although the cafe was paying above market rent at $180,000 a year plus GST.

The business was not in financial trouble and he had been willing to pay more rent.

The cafe, with its quiet courtyard and graffiti-style decor, has been a favourite late-night hangout for countless caffeine junkies, and even helped Mr Dunlop to find true love.

Majida Tooma bought the business from him about 10 years ago and he stayed on to manage it. Three years later, the couple were married.

Mrs Tooma is just as devastated about the closure as her husband. "We never asked [the landlord] for anything ... now we have 18 staff who are going to be looking for jobs," she said.

"Wellington still needs places like this."

Landlord Spyros Papageorgiou could not be reached by The Dominion Post yesterday.

Mr Dunlop and Mrs Tooma said they would love to reopen the cafe somewhere else, but it was important to find a place with the "right feel".

Last month, Cuba St's 80-year-old Dorothy Patisserie shut its doors after rent skyrocketed from $18,000 to $85,000 in the space of six years.

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