Coffeeshop owners hope for community support after unexpected partial closure

COLUMBUS, Ga. ( WRBL ) — A locally owned coffeeshop was forced to temporarily close after a leak caused the building to flood over the weekend. Although Midtown Coffeehouse partially reopened its doors for online orders on April 18, it’s dining room will be closed for another week.

“It’s going to impact our business a lot,” said owner Mike Maldonado, who opened the coffeeshop café with his wife Angie in 2014. “I just hope that we can survive this.”

According to Maldonado, the leak which caused the closure happened on Saturday evening in the shop’s bathroom. It wasn’t noticed until an employee came in to do inventory on Sunday. By that time the floors were covered in a quarter inch of water.

Maldonado said Midtown Coffeehouse’s furniture was able to be salvaged. An assessment by Servpro revealed the walls were also undamaged.

But flooring throughout the café was not so fortunate.

As a result of the damage from the leak, Midtown Coffeehouse will have to replace all of the wood flooring and baseboards in the building.

Maldonado said new flooring is likely to come in next Tuesday. The café hopes to resume business as usual by Friday that week.

The Maldonados were able to work with landlord Will Burgin to make the floor repairs happen, but the financial impact of Midtown Coffeehouse’s temporary closure will extend beyond the repairs.

Maldonado explained insurance will not cover the loss of revenue from the store’ closure, which is expected to last about two weeks if it opens next Friday as predicted.

To try and offset costs and continue providing to loyal customers, Midtown Coffeehouse is still open for online orders. Guests may not be able to eat inside as usual, but they can pick up their orders from a stand outside the store’s entrance and sit down at one of the café tables on its patio.

Maldonado confirmed the coffeeshop is still offering its full menu.

By about noon on April 18, Maldonado said Midtown Coffeehouse had received about 20 online orders on it’s first day back open after the partial close. This included a large order from Energy Savers HVAC services company for a local staff meeting, made in an effort to support the local small business.

Midtown Coffeehouse will be fully closed on Saturday as workers sand inside the café in preparation for its new floors. It will remain closed through Sunday.

On Monday, Midtown Coffeehouse with resume taking online orders only until the dining room reopens.

Midtown Coffeehouse encouraged customers to keep up with updates on reopening progress on its Instagram and Facebook pages. The owners also apologized to any customers who had reservations that had to be cancelled following the damage.

“We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but we just hope and pray that we can get back on our feet next Friday,” Maldonado said.

He recalled strong community support during the COVID-19 pandemic and added “We appreciate the community supporting us in the past and we hope it will continue.”

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