Spotlight: Gore Street Cafe
Gore Street Cafe is a for-profit social enterprise located in Sault Ste. Marie that is a community hub to grab some food and connect with others.
More than just a cafe, Gore Street Cafe boosts a sense of community for the residents in the area by offering a place for local artists to showcase their work and hosting various events, such as open mic nights. They have also introduced a Supper Club every month or so for members and a pay-what-you-can day.
The cafe was founded by Nicole Dyble and Sam Decter with the goal of providing a spot where people could do meaningful work and have access to affordable food.
Nicole, a student of Algoma University’s Community Economic and Social Development program, talks about the motivation behind the Gore Street Cafe and how it hopes to be able to do good things in the community.
Check out their story below:
Q: What inspired you to start the Gore Street Cafe?
A: The opportunity arose and it was too good to pass up. My partner, Sam and I noticed the cafe space become available in December around the same time we both found ourselves unemployed. The rent was inexpensive and the cafe came “fully equipped’’ so there was little start-up cost other than food. We had had sort of lofty discussions about starting a business sometime in the future — something that would incorporate our passions and skills while addressing community need, and we weren’t sure if we’d be able to find other decent employment for ourselves in Sault Ste. Marie, so we decided to make a go of it.
Q: What is the motivation behind your social enterprise?
A: Basically, the motivation behind starting the Gore Street Cafe was to help create a way for Sam and I to live in a way we want to live. This includes doing work we care about that’s interesting and stimulating, incorporating our interests and passions and “making a living” without having to compromise our ethics. It’s all grounded in a belief in social justice and an understanding of the interconnectedness of people and the environment.
Q: Who do you hope to impact/reach through the work of your social enterprise? Why?
A: There’s no set target demographic — I hope that we can reach as many people as possible through our social enterprise. There are many different ways I hope to do that — introducing a person to a new food, giving an artist their first chance to show their work, providing a meal that wouldn’t have been accessible otherwise, sharing safe, accessible space for important work or meaningful interactions to take place, giving farmers and local food producers respect and a fair payment for their products, bringing people together over food… There’s more… those are just the first things that come to mind.
Q: Would you consider yourself a social entrepreneur? Why or why not?
A: As far as adhering to a certain definition of what a social entrepreneur can be, I suppose I am one. I don’t believe that making a profit is my sole consideration in running a business. It’s also possible for the sake of funding or being involved with certain initiatives I respect I might identify as such. Personally, however, I would just consider myself a person and part of a team trying to run a business and support ourselves. I’m trying to do this in a way I think it reasonably should be done and in a way that is more beneficial to more people (ie. without exploitation) in the long run. I think the clear delineation between for-profit businesses, social enterprises and nonprofits /charities can be problematic in that it makes it seem like only certain types of organizations have a responsibility to have a conscience.
Q: What barriers/challenges have you encountered?
A: As I’m sure is the case with most organizations, time and financial restraints are always challenging. These may have been even more so for us as we decided to open Gore Street Cafe without any prior planning or fundraising and within a month we were operational.
Neither Sam or I have run or managed a business before so we have been learning the ins and outs as we go along. It has been difficult at some points as we’re doing things in a somewhat unconventional way and there are few models to follow (especially locally). It seems there are many people interested in giving us advice but not a whole lot that’s actually useful to what we’re trying to build.
Not being a conventional restaurant (ie. not having a full menu, changing food options daily, having pay-what-you-want days) and being different than what currently exists in the market in Sault Ste. Marie (ie. serving vegetarian fare, not serving pop, having business hours that include Sunday and Monday but not Wednesday …) means that we also fairly regularly encounter unreceptive or confused patrons. For instance, more than once someone has sat down and ordered a burger and then left when told we didn’t have burgers on the menu that day.
Q: How did you confront those challenges and barriers? What resources did you need? What resources do you project needing as you move forward?
A: We consciously work to keep our overhead low — spending mostly on food costs and rent. We have no employees to incur labour costs and bartering for goods and services also helps us with this.
We try to be honest with ourselves about how much we can take on. This means we’ve taken a few days off here and there since we’ve opened and that we’ll be shortening our hours a bit when I go back to school full time in September.
Consulting with The Community Development Corporation prior to opening the cafe was helpful when it came to learning the initial steps we had to take. Meeting with an accountant soon after opening to understand what we need to keep records of for tax purposes also made us feel more comfortable in our ability to run a business.
Although much of the advice that we have received has been unhelpful, hearing about the experiences of others is invaluable. Andrea Pinheiro from 180 Projects, Robin Sutherland from Thinking Rock Community Arts, Chad Stewart and Jen and Blake Richards from Low and Slow, Ashleigh Sauve from Shabby Motley and Stephen Alexander from Loplops have all been generous in sharing their experiences of running organizations in this city.
Additionally, we have been able to draw on our experiences working and volunteering at various places in Toronto including Belljar Cafe, Geraldine, Not My Dog, Horizons for Youth, Fire on the East Side, The Stop Community Food Centre and The West End Food Co-op among others. We have also looked to the innovative work that Len Senator at The Depanneur and Nathan Isberg at The Atlantic on Dundas partake in for inspiration on challenging what a restaurant can look like.
As far as acquainting the consumer base with what we serve, how we do things and what we’re trying to achieve, we 1) try to include ‘comfort food’ in our offerings every day (ie. we serve grilled cheese sandwiches and a two egg breakfast all the time) 2) take advantage of using social media to promote and communicate daily 3) try to connect and partner with like minded individuals and organizations to broaden our reach and 4) value the press coverage we’ve received (from Local 2, The Sault Star, Sault This Week and Northern Hoot so far).
Q: Who is your community of support? How important is a local face-to-face community of support?
A: Our community of support includes the friends we’ve met since we moved to Sault Ste. Marie who all seem to be involved in community development, arts and culture and/or restaurant work in some way and frequently help us out with things like promotion, giving us rides, running events, making donations of stuff we can use, encouraging us and giving us hugs. Our community of support also includes people who live and work in the neighbourhood and increasingly includes the farmers and food suppliers we purchase from. This community is integral to Gore Street Cafe. We wouldn’t be able to stay open without this support.
Q: What would have made this process easier for you?
A: Money. Time. Energy. Mentorship in running a social enterprise / unconventional business…
Q: What do you hope to see your social enterprise become in the future?
A: I hope Gore Street Cafe will be a sustainable business that can be pragmatic in its responses to community need and may be used as a viable prototype for others who wish to take on similar projects.
For more information about the Gore Street Cafe and their upcoming events, visit their Facebook page.
