Independent coffee shop has become vibrant community hub
RODERICK BENNS On any given day it’s easy to see the City’s business getting done. No, we’re not at City Hall right now in your faithful scribe’s scenario.We are, in fact, at Boiling Over’s Coffee Vault in downtown Lindsay. Meetings take place between City officials here. Economic Development might stop by for a tête-àtête. Community groups meet to plan their activities. It’s not all business, of course. There’s socializing and debate, conversations and interviews. It’s a mix of millennials, Generation Z, Generation X, and Boomers. (Well, pretty much all ages.) I’ve seen teachers lesson planning, students doing homework, and artists talking music. What is perhaps more amazing is that less than 750 metres away there is a Tim Hortons, the company still pretending to be Canadian. (It hasn’t sunk in yet
for a lot of people that Tim’s parent company is now a Brazilian multinational.) Boiling Over? One hundred per cent Canadian…and 100 per cent local. Three years ago, before the independent coffee house opened, the owners listened to the feedback that there was a need in Lindsay for something more upscale and more adult friendly. It’s what they have delivered, fine tuning things over the years to incorporate an artistic, community hub vibe. “We were mocked when we opened it,” says Jamie Bergin, one of four owners of Boiling Over, “with Tim Hortons only a block away.” Yet business is up 20-25 per cent over this time last year. The other owners are his daughter, Taryn
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