To Christina Stevens, there’s nothing like a good cup of café con leche.
It’s Stevens’ favorite drink on the Patticakes menu, and the 32-year-old respiratory therapist doesn’t hesitate to order it whenever she (frequently) shows up at the shop on Bo Diddley Plaza. But, after being a customer for three years, Stevens is going to have to find a new place to get her coffee.
Patticakes will be closing on July 26.
“One thing I am going to miss about this place is meeting my sister-in-law, who works at the courthouse, every week for coffee dates,” Stevens said.
Stevens said Patticakes offers them more room for privacy in contrast to other coffee shops in the area and has a welcoming space and friendly customer service.
Jan Patterson, the owner of Patticakes, said the coffee shop is not making enough revenue to sustain its downtown location. The Haile Village Center location, which opened in 2011, will remain open since the shop is closer to Patterson’s home and easier to manage.
“Patticakes started off in Haile Plantation, but I expanded to downtown because I wanted a place where neighbors could gather and new people to meet,” she said.
The Bo Diddley Plaza Patticakes opened in September 2016 and began serving coffee, sandwiches and cupcakes to the downtown area. Alongside its standard cupcakes like red velvet and vanilla, the shop cycles through specialty flavors each week, including peanut butter and jelly and blueberry.
Patterson said the coffee shop, named by combining her last name with the word “cupcakes,” offers guests the perfect ambiance with indoor and outdoor seating and large tables spacious enough for an afternoon study space.
Paying the bills while making a good profit, however, is a big challenge as a local business owner, Patterson said.
The City of Gainesville has not approved any businesses to replace Patticakes, she said.
Gabriel Chavez, the general manager at Wyatt’s Coffee, said it’s incredibly sad to see a local business close down. He loves how Gainesville has a place for so many coffee shops.
Wyatt’s Coffee and the other downtown shops cater to a large percentage of the Gainesville students and young professionals, Chavez said. In the past, Wyatt’s Coffee was also closed before relocating from midtown to downtown in 2018. According to Alligator archives, the midtown location didn’t have enough space or visibility.
“Locations can be a hit or miss,” Chavez said.
The sign for Patticakes in Bo Diddley Plaza is reflected Monday evening in the window of the closed coffee shop.
