For two years, Ramon Rathore and Jaci Rampson have been living their dream, running the very successful Up Beet Juice Bar on Katoomba Street and employing up to eight young locals.
But after the landlord virtually doubled their rent in January, they have been surviving only by drawing on their savings and now have no option but to move.
Fortunately, they have found new premises in the Town Centre Arcade but they face large costs in fitting the place out. So they have started a crowd funding campaign, hoping their regular customers and others will chip in to help pay for the equipment, plumbing, carpentry and other work that will have to be done.
“It’s either lie down and give up or ask for help,” Mr Rathore said.
In his message on the funding website, he said: “I don’t want to have to beg but we are begging for help right now.”
The couple is hoping that the move will give their vegetarian/vegan cafe a fresh start and also give a kick along to an area that is mostly unused and unloved, except by smoking youths.
“Our idea is we want to revitalise that space,” Ms Rampson said. “We want it to be happy and welcoming and turn it into a little hub.”
Said her husband: “I think we’ll be a drawcard there and we’ll attract other shops.”
Ms Rampson is trying to look for the silver lining in the cloud that has been hanging over their heads.
“You just have to make the best of a bad situation and hopefully in six months’ time I will look back on this and think, it’s the best thing that ever happened to us,” she said.
The website address for the crowd funding is is https://ozcrowd.com/campaign/2567.
