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    City Beet Cafe Officially Cancelled for Original Clintonville Location

    It’s been six and a half years since the City Beet Cafe project — a next-door vegetarian restaurant expansion from the team at Pattycake Bakery — was first announced, and having not heard any major updates since 2013, you might have assumed the project was dead. But today the owners took to Facebook to explain that they’ve been continuing to work on the project, but have hit an insurmountable hurdle with the current plan in the current space.

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    “It is with much sadness and disappointment that we announce that we are unable to proceed with our planned expansion and City Beet, a cafe we hoped to build next door,” they stated. “When Pattycake started 14 years ago, it was like a series of doors opening. While not easy, challenges became opportunities and things seemed to fall into place. Unfortunately, City Beet was a contrast — doors seemed to open onto walls.”

    Since 2011, the team has worked on a full menu, architectural plans, parking agreements, and various approvals from neighborhood commissions and city zoning boards. But in the end it all came down to an inability to secure financing on the proper timeline.

    “We learned that instead of continuing to rent our building, for which we had initially planned and budgeted, we would have buy if we wanted to proceed,” they explained. “So we found ourselves unexpectedly in need of significant additional cash. After submitting historical financials and projections, we seemed to get that lined up, only to have lenders who believed in us and our project leave the financial institutions just as we were being approved for loans. Then this summer, we tracked down and got approved for co-op specific funds, but unfortunately now find ourselves facing the hard deadline of our variance and building permit expiring at a time when our landlord is not able to sell us the building.”

    The owners of Pattycake go on to say that this isn’t the final nail in the coffin for City Beet. Alternative expansion plans will continue to be explored.

    Rendering via Tim Lai Architect.

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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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