PK Coffee closes Waterbury shop to focus on Stowe business

Oct. 16, 2022  |  By Cheryl Casey  |  Correspondent 

PK Coffee has closed its Waterbury cafe. Courtesy photo

PK Coffee served Waterbury its last jolt of caffeine and signature froth on Sunday before closing the doors at its Foundry Street location. 

The company announced the decision on PK’s Instagram account on Friday. The post cited the challenges of maintaining businesses in both Waterbury and Stowe in the post-COVID economy.

“These last few years have been tough, and we’ve given it our all to keep the doors open at both locations,” they wrote on Instagram, adding that, “Closing our Waterbury shop will give us time to regroup and focus on what we are capable of at our Stowe location with the small (yet mighty) team we have.” 

Linnae Horan, PK Coffee’s general manager, said that the decision came down to staffing and sales. “As some staff have moved on and the summer help went back to school/etc, we have struggled to keep our shops open and operating when hiring has been such a challenge,” she wrote in an email to the Waterbury Roundabout. After relying so heavily on back-up help and adjusting shop hours to try and keep up, “change needs to be made,” Horan said. 

Additionally, Horan acknowledged that sales at the Stowe shop are higher than in Waterbury, due likely in part to the increasing number of tourists visiting the area. “The Stowe shop has been busier than ever,” she said, admitting that “while it’s great for business, it’s not great for being understaffed.”

The plan now is to focus on running just one cafe. “Our hope is that more staffing in our busy shop will allow us to keep up with the increased volume of tourists, and decrease the burnout of our team,” added Horan.

Back to the beginning… again

PK Coffee is not alone in facing extraordinary business challenges and difficult decisions, but their story is notably one of adaptability and resilience. 

After running their original cafe in Stowe since 2016, PK opened in Waterbury in February 2020 – just one month before the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a grinding halt. By August of that year, circumstances forced them to close their shop at the Gale Farm on the Mountain Road in Stowe. In an interview with the Waterbury Roundabout in October 2020, owner Katrina Veerman explained her focus on “going back to the beginning” at the Waterbury shop, “bring[ing] joy back” to the community after months of pandemic isolation, fear, and shutdown. 

But in February 2021, PK Coffee reopened in Stowe at a new location on Mountain Road, just next door to Gale Farm, and for more than a year the company has served both communities as a staple on the local coffee shop scene. 

Now, PK Coffee is facing a familiar situation as in 2020, but in reverse. Instead of a mandatory shutdown though, they are among the many businesses in the service industry struggling to keep up with staffing shortages, the growing expenses of food, supplies, and labor, and the simultaneous growing demand of both locals and tourists as everyone returns to some new version of normal.

Nicole Grenier, owner of Stowe Street Cafe in Waterbury just a few storefronts away from PK Coffee, expressed sorrow and frustration upon learning about PK’s closing nearby.  Replying to PK Coffee’s Instagram announcement, Grenier wrote:  “Someone came in today to tell us and seemed to expect us to be happy to hear it, except that we’re really not. It sucks that we’re all struggling with the current conditions of everything and seeing yet another well-loved establishment have to make these tough choices doesn’t bring us joy. It could be any of us honestly.” 

Grenier wished PK Coffee the best of luck and expressed hope that they can return to Waterbury someday.

A (bitter)sweet future

For now, PK Coffee is going back to the beginning. Back to Stowe. Back to focusing on taking care of their team and bringing joy to their customers. 

Horan described the current situation as “very much taking things day-by-day.” The timeframe for sorting out details such as the lease of the Waterbury space has yet to be addressed, “as we had to make this decision quickly to keep up with our staff scheduling,” Horan explained. 

Prior to making the decision to close, the Waterbury shop had 8 employees, including bakers and baristas, Horan said. Six of those employees will transfer to the Stowe shop and two had already decided to move on. The shift should allow the company to focus on meeting the demand at the Stowe cafe at a critical time. “We hope to be able to expand our Stowe hours with our current team in time for the busy ski season,” she said.

Still, the move hurts. “We are heartbroken to close a space that has become part of the Waterbury community,” Horan said.

Fans can still get their PK Coffee fix at the Stowe shop at 1940 Mountain Road.