Farewell, Zola’s. But we DID warn you…
Well, the sun is setting on Zola’s Cafe Dore on Whitehorse’s main drag–and by that, we mean Main Street, not that little strip of road that runs between Ricky’s and the Chilkoot Centre.
As the local CBC reported this week, the popular coffee shop–which was only opened a few years ago–has succumbed to increased competition in the downtown area and will close at the end of the month. By our calculations, that’s tomorrow.
In an interview on A New Day, cafe owner and renowned coffee roaster Zola Dore (sorry, we can’t be bothered with those little Frenchy accent things) didn’t single out a certain well-known chain store as the culprit, but Smells Like Yukon could certainly listen between the lines.
As far back as 2005, Mark and Jesse could see there was just no way Zola’s could continue to compete with Envirolube, where they offer free coffee in the waiting room. As you might have heard in the first radio story he ever worked on, Mark has always maintained that the best coffee in town comes as a side dish with a quick oil change. And now, he has clearly been vindicated.
With this in mind, we suggest that the other Main Street-area coffee shops–Baked, Starbucks, Tim Hortons, Chocolate Claim and Java Connection–had better smarten up and finally take this Envirolube threat seriously. Ignore its coffee at your peril.
But, much like the java at Envirolube, this moral victory is bittersweet for Mark. Zola’s coffee was pretty good, too, and even he’s going to miss it.