In a business climate where corporate giants like Starbucks have been closing locations as fast as they used to open them, small independent coffeehouses barely stand a chance. Cafe Uno didn’t even make it six months. Owner Marina Teodorovic, who opened in the former Espresso Royale space in Belle Arbor Commons on Carpenter last November, closed her doors March 15.
“I don’t think the location was any good,” Teodorovic says, something Espresso Royale apparently discovered a few years before she did–they pulled the plug on the espresso maker and closed up shop in the fall of 2008 after a five-year run. “Plus I realized [that] as a new business it would take a lot from me, both financially and physically, so I just decided to close.”
Closing was hard for Teodorovic, fifty-two, who’s used to running her own show–before opening Cafe Uno, she owned another coffeehouse in Chelsea and before that a take-out pizza place and before that a party store. But for now she’s going to bide her time before jumping back into retail. “I don’t think this is the time for small business for now.”
