Stone Creek Coffee next month will permanently close its original location in Whitefish Bay.
The cafe, at 601 E. Silver Spring Drive, will have its last service day on April 18, according to an announcement on social media. This is the Milwaukee-based coffee roaster’s second store closure in the past six months; its Walker’s Point location closed in November due to challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stone Creek has nine other locations in the southeastern Wisconsin, including three in the North Shore area.
In the announcement, founder and managing director Eric Resch reflected on the early days of the business: “This café was the first café I opened in December 1993. On the day we opened, I was on the floor serving customers, making drinks, and being scared as hell. I was 24 years old and knew very little about owning a business.”
Situated along a busy neighborhood thoroughfare, Stone Creek shares part of its storefront with Bruegger’s Bagels. The City Market and Sendik’s Food Market are on the same corner.
Resch said the closure has brought a sense of optimism and clarity, rather than sadness, and he’s proud of what the business has accomplished over the past 27 years. He thanked the cafe’s staff and customers.
Stone Creek won’t layoff any employees or cut hours as a result of the closure. All staff members will transfer to nearby locations.
“Everything we create in our business is iterative with the goal of making something even better tomorrow,” Resch wrote. “Today we announce the closing of a café, but tomorrow something new rises up based on what we have learned. We march on resilient and ever-curious as we go.”
The pandemic has also sparked several store closures for Milwaukee-based Colectivo Coffee Roasters Inc., which has scaled back its local operation from 13 cafes to nine currently open. One of its three Madison locations is temporarily closed.
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