In December 2020, vegan café The Cold Pressery announced their unfortunate and untimely closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The news was deeply upsetting for the cafe’s loyal following that they built in their five years of operation. As The Cold Pressery was getting ready to shut the doors to their central Mississauga location, they projected a sense of hope on their social media platforms, promising their followers that they will see each other again very soon. In the spring of 2021, after almost five months of inactivity, The Cold Pressery posted a mysterious photo of a heart rate. “We have a pulse”, the caption read. Shortly after, the popular cafe announced that it has found a new home inside of Eva’s Original Chimneys’ Port Credit location.
Being loved by many in the city, founder Jenny Le was offered a generous number of resources during the closure. When she spoke to OnSide Media again, Jenny admitted that she knew that the Cold Pressery’s return was expected. She explains, “Shortly after we announced our closure, we were lucky enough to network with a couple other businesses in Mississauga. One of my friends, who I met through our business, he owns Eva’s Original, and he offered me the location”. However, she did not want to jump into working at a brand-new vicinity. “I took a little break before I came back. We could have come back earlier, but I just had it in the back of my mind as I monitored the COVID situation”. With a bit of patience, the Cold Pressery was back in business when the time was right after being away.
The community that the Cold Pressery cultivated was loyal enough to find them at the new location and continue to support them. Most of Jenny’s customers are regulars that were eager to visit the café in Port Credit. Luckily, the new Cold Pressery has been proven to be more convenient for its customers. Jenny notes, “I always ask any customer who comes in, especially our regulars, if the new location is closer or further from them. It’s so nice the way it worked out because most of our regulars ended up moving south as well, so it ended up being closer for them”.
Operating in Eva’s Original, The Cold Pressery has significantly less space to work with this time around. This new layout comes with its own set of pros and cons. When asked about the cafe’s presence while being located inside of Eva’s, Jenny admits, “One of our biggest challenges is being noticed. I’m very fortunate that they [Eva’s] extended that opportunity to us. But it is very difficult for people to find us, and we don’t have any major signs. It’s going to be an adjustment period, its going to take a while for people to know where to look for us”.
With this new opportunity to bring the beloved café back to Mississauga, Jenny notices that she has the time and space to hone in on her craft and perfect the original vegan menu items. “Because I don’t have the added stress of running a large facility, I feel that I can take a step back and really focus on the product. I’m really putting my passion and effort into making my products the best instead of handing it off to a staff that may not care as much about the product”. Jenny expresses a rediscovered passion as she reflects on this. “I take a lot of pride in the items that I serve, and operating this way helps remind me of that”.
New life has been breathed into the Cold Pressery, and customers new and old have given the café a warm welcome since it’s reopening. The new location in Eva’s Original is the first step to rebuilding the community connection the Cold Pressery had pre-pandemic. While Jenny intends to stay at Eva’s long-term, she is also looking for a location that will support the events she used to host at the central Mississauga location. “Right now, I’m trying to keep the Cold Pressery alive through that location”, Jenny explains. “There were so many parts of it that I had to let go of, such as the Open Mic Nights and the Comedy Nights. So, its about finding the next best location at the right time. We really can’t plan that far ahead right now”.
The Cold Pressery can be found inside of Eva’s Original Chimneys in Port Credit. 53 Lakeshore Road East. For more information, visit https://www.thecoldpressery.com/
Author: Vanessa Butera, Content Writer, The Onside Media, Toronto, Canada. If you have stories to share kindly email: – vanessa.butera@theonside.com
