02/02/2021
It is with an overwhelming feeling of disappointment and disbelief that we have to say we are officially closed at our River North/Ohio house location. Since Covid started my attorney and I worked to save and mend our relationship with Ohio house ownership, they insisted on full rent to be paid but with NO customers it was a very hard demand to comply with. And on more than several occasions ownership and Ohio house management treated my staff and myself small and disrespectful. I only had four years left on the lease and wanted to leave on a good note. We put our heart into saving our business however with ownership not budging we were eventually evicted, even though we were in the middle of negotiations for a payment plan. Which is why we were confused as to why eviction played out. Now ownership isn’t allowing us access to our property although our lease indicated we have the right to it. I’ve finally swallowed my truth and accepted that it is never ok to want to be somewhere where are you are not wanted nor is it ok to try to live up to someone else’s expectations. Instead of ownership using this opportunity to support and elevate our minority woman owned business they took the route of being deceiving and ugly. It’s all good though we will move forward from this. I am blessed that our other four locations are thriving and we were able to move the employees from Ohio house and distribute them to other locations, I am also blessed and want to say thank you to my landlords at our other locations for being available and supportive and have helped Café Tola and it’s 30+ employees stay employed and keep us in the game. I love you Chicago! Please@continue to support your local shops, be kind, and take@very good care of yourselves. Please visit us at our other stores!
