Thomas Breen photo
Cafe Romeo: Closed. But a new cafe coming soon.
Cafe Romeo has closed after ten years of selling coffee, pastries, and pizza from the corner of Pearl Street and Orange Street in East Rock.
The owner has sold the cafe to another local coffee shop, though he would not confirm which coffee shop that is.
Chris Mordecai, the founder and owner of Cafe Romeo, told the Independent on Monday that he has sold the remaining 10 years of his 20-year lease of the ground-floor commercial space at 534 Orange St.
“We’ve been open 10 years,” he said. “We’re open 364 days a year. Honestly, I just needed to move on and do something different. It was just too much to work seven days a week, 364 days a year.”
Since the opening in October 2009, he said, the only day each year that he’s had off has been Christmas.
Cafe Romeo, now permanently closed, on Sunday morning.
Mordecai lives on Orange Street and sits on the Board of Assessment Appeals. He runs a local real estate company called Restoration Realty, which, he said, owns around 40 apartments throughout the city. He said he doesn’t plan on leaving the Elm City any time soon.
“It’s not a sad story,” he said. “It was a conscious decision for me to sell it. I did make sure that I was able to sell it to another small local business.”
He said that he’s been able to find jobs at other local small business for roughly half of the 20 employees at Cafe Romeo.
As for to whom he has sold the space, Mordecai kept that information close to the vest.
“Another local coffee shop is moving in, and East Rock will be very pleased,” he said.
A 4th Blue State location? Another Starbucks?