‘Corydon North’ is percolating Just about everything at Modern Coffee pays homage to its North End roots By: Ben Waldman Posted: 3:28 PM CST Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2018 (1955 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Allison Slessor could use a cup of coffee.

For the last six months, Slessor, 35, has been working on opening her café, Modern Coffee, on the northeast corner of Inkster and Main, tinkering with the finishes, the furniture, and of course, the lattés and espresso. On Dec. 1, two days before the shop was set to open, Slessor wrapped up her staff training and finally got the brief chance to sit down, enjoy a few sips of joe, and revel in what she’d built from scratch: a genuine café in the North End.

“A lot of people thought I was crazy to try,” she said.

Seven years ago, Slessor and her family moved to a house just down the block, near Scotia Street. They fell in love with the old-world charm of the eclectic building, as well as the entire community around them. Slessor and her husband worked nearby, at Pollock’s Hardware Co-op, and always tried to support neighbourhood businesses. But something was missing, she noted.

“How could I be living in a place without a coffee shop?” she asked herself. “I guess I’ll have to start one myself.”

Slessor was right: nearby, there isn’t much in the way of true, neighbourhood cafés. Many denizens grab coffee at the Salisbury House, Tim Hortons, McDonalds, or A & W, but Slessor, who’s never run a business before, saw a clear gap in the market.

“A coffee shop is a necessity,” she says. “I think they can really tighten a community.”

In high school, Slessor spent a lot of her time in coffee shops that she says did just that, including the now-shuttered Fyxx on Albert Street and various java joints in West Broadway. A little over a decade ago, she came up with a business plan to open her own in the Exchange, but soon realized she wasn’t ready and that the rent would likely make it difficult to sustain.

Then, early this year, the location on Inkster stopped her in her tracks — literally.

“My bike broke down riding home right on the corner, right outside the door,” she said. When she looked up, she saw the vacancy sign. The former tenant, Luxe & Lane Hair Salon, had moved to a new location across the street, and it seemed Slessor had found the perfect spot, right down the street from home.

The next day, she went to see the landlord, Sonya Skinner, whose business, Sonya’s Flowers, opened nearly 20 years ago in a connected retail space. Before the salon opened, the back suite was always empty, Skinner said, and when she bought the building, it was in great disrepair.

But once it got cleaned up, and after the salon moved out, Skinner got several calls from merchants interested in moving in, which signalled to her that there’s a “keen interest in investing in this neighbourhood.”

That’s a welcome notion to Skinner. The neighbourhood has seen its fair share of businesses open and close, or move to new spots, leaving a few vacant storefronts on Main between Matheson and Inkster and beyond, she says. Within the last couple months, a workout clothing shop two doors down closed. Cellar Dweller, a hobby shop, moved a few blocks north. So Skinner has high hopes for Modern Coffee’s staying power.

“There is a lot of interest in this neck of the woods. We’ve got a customer base that loves to support its local businesses here,” she said. “A friend of mine referred to it as Corydon North,” she laughs.

And although Slessor may have taken some inspiration from businesses in the city’s south end, she’s made it her mission to make her café decidedly North End.

The shelving units come straight from Pollock’s shop, splattered with haphazard flecks of white paint. The walls are adorned with dozens of photos Slessor shot around the North End — the counter at City Bread, the outdoor rink at Luxton Community Centre, and the old Safeway on Main and Polson, which has since been converted to a Giant Tiger. A Kelekis menu is on prominent display behind the counter.

As for the edible and potable, coffee from Dufferin Avenue’s Black Pearl Coffee is dripping, and some baked goods come from Gunn’s Bakery, a Selkirk Avenue staple.

Even the business’s name, which is a bit of a playful misnomer given the throwback feel, is a North End homage. The large, green, metallic letters that spell out Modern inside the shop were originally mounted on Modern Groceteria, a business that bounced around from Manitoba Avenue to McPhillips Street to Main from the 1930s until the 1990s.

From 1955 until the ‘90s, the groceteria was run by the Wusowicz family on Main and Magnus Avenue, in the building that’s now Bird Shop & Aquariums. Anthony Wusowicz worked the till at four years old, and his older brother worked in the butcher shop, while his parents did everything else to keep the business running.

When he saw a photo of the coffee shop’s sign, Wusowicz — at the behest of a Free Press reporter — called his brother and his mom, now 90, to confirm it was the same one. “They both said, “That’s the sign,” he said.

“To see that is kind of neat, and it brings back some good memories and nostalgia for when things were very different,” added the Charleswoodite. “I’ll totally go check it out.”

In the first week since opening, the café has had a steady flow of customers, many making their way to the front door by foot. Slessor hopes the shop fills a niche in the neighbourhood, and wants other entrepreneurs and business owners to rethink the North End as a potential destination to start their businesses.

“This neighbourhood should be embraced,” she said. “Maybe now some more people will see the potential.”

Ben Waldman
Reporter

Ben Waldman covers a little bit of everything for the Free Press.

   Read full biography