Autumn Lovewell and Monica Colgan have brought a lot to Morgan Junction, with many community-building events and initiatives, while running their three small independent businesses here. And soon, they’re going to leave a void when they close all three. They announced today that they’re closing their three businesses – Youngstown Coffee, HeartBeet Organic Superfoods Café, and Launchpad – at 6030-6032 California SW on September 30th. Thanks to everyone who forwarded the announcements sent to the Youngstown and HeartBeet email lists – from the former (which you can read in its entirety here):
… While there are a handful of reasons we’re closing permanently, ultimately fate has decided for us with the sale of our 100-year-old building and the closure of our sister businesses HeartBeet Cafe and Launchpad Co-Working space (all closing on Sept 30th).
Monica, myself, our kids, and our amazing staff will exit with our heads held high, proud of the magic we made in our tiny corner of West Seattle called Morgan Junction. With your support we’ve built a beautiful community and have accomplished so much together in these short but long 3+ years. From our Pride marches, to fundraisers, and supporting local marginalized businesses at our markets, we’ve all made an impact together. We’re so proud of you and all of us.
We’re asking you continue to support the incredible small businesses in Morgan Junction. Supporting small is so vital to the health of our people! …
From the letter to customers of HeartBeet, whose Queen Anne location will close too:
… The list of reasons for our closure is long and mostly financial-related, but we are proud of our accomplishment of making it nearly 15 years in Seattle, while all odds are against small businesses. During that time, we’ve sold well over 100,000 dishes of our very popular Buddha Bowl, we served roughly 1.1 million customer meals (wow!), and tens of thousands of hacked coconuts. Together we’ve made it so far with the events affecting HeartBeet: a flood, a major light rail construction project, snowpocalypses, heat domes, multiple burglaries, and even a global pandemic!
The ultimate last straw prompting closure is the loss of our main production facility in West Seattle, due to the pending sale of our 100-year old building. Were we in a better financial position, were financial institutions more supportive of small restaurant businesses, were the delivery service fees through UberEats and DoorDash (which comprise a large volume of our sales), not 30%, and were it not getting so hard to hire staff, things might be different….
In West Seattle, Autumn and Monica took over Youngstown Coffee three years ago; HeartBeet was founded elsewhere in the city but then opened a Junction pop-up before the Morgan location. They converted the north side of the California SW storefronts to an event space that then became Launchpad. Before Autumn and Monica’s businesses, the spaces held others including Harry’s Chicken Joint (closed in 2019) and Jade West Café (closed in 2010). Again, they don’t plan to close until September 30th, but as the HeartBeet letter notes, that may be a challenge if the coffee shop and café staff find new jobs sooner (and the Youngstown message says, “If you have any leads for them, please email us at hello@youngstowncoffeeseattle.com).
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