By Jessica Lovell
Guelph Tribune

Even as it begins to look like there might finally be an end in sight to the construction that has plagued Carden Street businesses, one business – arguably Guelph’s most iconic restaurant – did not manage to weather the storm.
The Carden Street Café will serve its last chicken curry on Sunday before the restaurant closes its door for good.
“In a nutshell, just with the business climate in the last year, and with all the construction and everything, it just dug a pretty big hole,” said owner Jer Robbins.
While he’s sad to have to close, he also feels relieved to see an end to the stresses of the last couple of years.“There are things that need to be done around her maintenance-wise that I can’t afford to do,” Robbins said.
The restaurant’s sign, which fell down recently and hasn’t been repaired, was one of these things, he said. In hindsight, it might literally be called a sign of the times – a visible indicator that the businesses had fallen on hard times.
The sign that’s visible now is a vintage version, which may bring back memories for some of the café’s earlier days. But there are likely few people who remember those early days as well as local musician James Gordon.
Gordon was the café’s first owner. He started it in 1977 with his partner at the time. Back then it was located at the end of the block, where Bin 23 is now, he said.
“One of the reasons it was started was there weren’t really venues at that time where people could go for live music,” said Gordon.
The café was one of the first places in the city where people could find a multi-cultural menu in those days, but food wasn’t the primary attraction. Food was served out of necessity in order to be able to pay the rent, but music and art was at the heart of what the Carden Street Café was all about, he said. “It did become a little iconic in the city for what it did for the arts,” Gordon said, adding that live music could be heard there sometimes seven days a week.
“We would stuff people in there. When all the seats were filled, we’d get milk crates out,” he said.
The café provided an outlet for local performers, but also for talent from outside of the city. It was inspired by clubs in England and in some larger cities, with the goal of providing quality entertainment in an intimate environment, said Gordon.
The cafe is where Jane Siberry got her start, and she later went on to be internationally known, he said.
The café also had a strong link to Hillside Festival with the two following a similar course, providing a venue for talented up-and-coming performers, he said.
Though the restaurant changed locations in the ’80s and changed owners a number of times, its connection to the music scene continued.
“They kept the tradition going of live music there,” said Gordon.
While it will be missed, there seem to be more local businesses offering this type of entertainment, so it may not leave a complete void, said Gordon.
It lasted a long time, and it is upsetting to see such a community-minded small business close down after so many years, he said.
The building’s owner has already signed a lease with a new restaurant owner who may be opening as soon as the end of January, said Robbins.
The restaurant will be called the Happy Traveller, and Robbins has arranged to sell most of the café’s fixtures to the business owner.
In the meantime, the Carden Street Café will be open for a few more days.
“We’re trying to reach out to some of our regular customers so they have a chance to come in one last time,” said Robbins.
“I want to say thank you for all the support we’ve gotten over the years.”

Artisanale on the move

The impending closure of the Carden Street Café is not the only change people can expect to see in downtown Guelph.
Latino’s closed its doors late last year, making way for the expansion of the Market Fresh grocery store in the Paisley Street plaza, and Artisanale Café and Bistro is soon to be on the move.
Artisanale, a restaurant specializing in local seasonal dishes, has celebrated its last New Year at its Bookshelf location. Says  the restaurant’s website, Artisanale will be moving in February to a “beautiful new location on Woolwich Street in downtown Guelph.”
What is going into the Bookshelf space is not being made public yet.