‘Hard to deal with:’ Halifax restaurant closing doors to make room for bus lanes

A beloved Halifax brunch spot is closing its doors at the end of the month after 16 years in business, as the municipality moves forward with its plans to widen Robie Street for dedicated bus lanes.

Mark Giffin, the chef behind The Coastal Cafe, says the decision has been “hard to deal with.”

“It was rewarding to see one of the first times that the dining room was ever full,” he said, reminiscing about when he opened the 20-seat restaurant in 2007.

“I went out and had a look and I just saw a full dining room, everyone eating quiet, and I could see the happiness on their faces. And it just made me feel like everything that I worked for in my career, you know?”

HRM is investing in bus lanes in several “key corridors” as part of its Integrated Mobility Plan and Rapid Transit Strategy.

The next phase will see the municipality expropriate properties on Robie Street to widen the road for dedicated bus lanes on both sides — a decision some groups in the neighbourhood have spoken out against.

The past few years have been tough on Giffin — and the rest of the restaurant industry.

He faced pandemic closures in 2020, and switched to doing takeout for a while. He applied for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), the federal government’s COVID-19 loan program, and he said it helped.

But as part of the bus corridor improvements, on-street parking was removed and Giffin said he noticed a 75 per cent drop in weekday business.

By the time COVID-19 restrictions lifted and things began to open up, he had to contend with labour shortages and rising costs of goods.

“It became a really difficult situation. I exhausted my life savings and ran up huge amounts of debt to sort of keep the doors open, food on the table and helping to emerge from the pandemic,” he said.

In February of this year, his landlord gave him a letter to say the municipality was indeed expropriating the building as part of the transit priority corridor.

He would have to vacate the building by August.

“I originally thought I’ll keep going until then. But my financial year ends at the end of May … and it just doesn’t make sense to carry on.”

Giffin said he considered selling or moving, but knows high rent prices everywhere will make that difficult.

“Robie is a nightmare. It needs to be widened,” he admitted.

“It’s just kind of hard after 16 years and really becoming an institution. And I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty beloved with the citizens of Halifax, to have all that just pulled out from under me without a word, anything? Nothing.”

Longtime customer Kevin Hoagland, who stopped by for lunch on Thursday, said he was dismayed when he heard the news. He believes HRM can do more to help small businesses.

“It was hard enough for a lot of the businesses when they put the bus lane in and took all the parking away. And with all the other construction around the city, there’s no way to park in general,” he said.

Giffin said no one with the municipality has ever spoken to him as a business owner about the expropriation or his restaurant’s future. He added he has consulted a lawyer who has told him he would be entitled to a “small amount” of compensation.

“I’m just under a lot of stress with this,” he said.

“I’d like to have gone out on my own terms and in my own way, and been able to come away from the Coastal after 16 years of investing so much time and money to have something to at least cushion the blow, but there’s nothing.”

In a statement to Global News, HRM spokesperson Laura Wright said the municipality is “engaging with landowners to acquire property along this corridor” for the project in support of the Rapid Transit Strategy.

“The municipality cannot share details regarding confidential negotiations,” she noted.

1:51 People in HRM react to Council’s motion to have dedicated bus lane on Robie and Young Street

Next door to the restaurant, Princess Octavious operates P3 Hair and Beauty Supplies. She, too, received a letter about the expropriation in February and immediately scrambled to find a new place.

“When I heard the news, with the cost of real estate now — the market of commercial space — the fear kicked in, the panic. It’s not enough time to find a place. I started calling around,” she said.

“It’s been stressful but what can we do?”

The beauty supply store will be moving to a new location on Barrington Street this summer.

As for The Coastal Cafe, Giffin said he’s taking the time to inform his regulars about the closure. He’s settling up bills, making plans to sell off restaurant equipment and hoping to have a Last Supper of sorts at the end of the month.

He doesn’t know what the future holds for him — or his famed Durty Burd breakfast sandwich. Perhaps one or the other will show up in a pop-up around the city.

“I was really proud of what we were able to achieve. And the staff over the years: great people come and gone. And, you know, they’re incredible highs, hilarious lows. Now it all comes to an end. So I’d like to say thank you, Halifax.”

— with a file from Global News’ Vanessa Wright.