Edinburgh cafe in plea for help as owners warn it could be forced to close

Owners of a cafe in Edinburgh have issued a desperate plea for help and warned they could be forced to close their doors in the next two months.

Kweer cafe, an LGBT+ friendly shop, cafe and art space admitted they are ‘struggling’ due to mounting bills and a drop in custom.

The award-winning venue in Brunstfield opened three years ago after launching a crowdfunding campaign. Owners said they had survived some tough periods but they would need support to stay open.

Oskar Hansen and Zac Riding opened the venue as a space for LGBT+ people to feel welcome without being in an alcohol-related environment. But the cafe is open to everyone, regardless of whether they identify as LGBT+ or not.

In candid posts on social media they said:

“Honest moment. We need your help. While most of our events are well attended, we’ve been facing reduced footfall in our daily business for the last month, and if it carries on this way, we may not be able to continue trading and offering a space for our beloved queer community and neighbourhood. As we enter the winter months with increasingly rising bills and costs, we’d really appreciate any support we can get, and remind you to support ALL your favourite local indie businesses.

As a business that opened in 2020, we’ve faced and survived some really tough times, and are grateful that we’ve even made it this far.

“We’ve also seen other businesses shut their doors because customers didn’t know how they were struggling, so we always said we would be honest if it happened to us. Many people in our lives have also told us they assumed that we’re thriving due to our online presence etc. Unfortunately, this isn’t necessarily the case. We understand we’re a little bit out of the way for some people, but if there’s anything you can do to help us keep our doors open, it would be deeply appreciated.

“If you’d like to support us there’s a variety of ways you can do so: come in for a coffee and a pastry or some lunch, book our basement space for your own event (book club, knitting session, board game night, workshops, etc), share our posts and events, buy a gift card for a friend to spend with us, available at the link in our bio, donate any small amount to our GoFundMe campaign that helped us get started three years ago.”

I”f there’s no significant change soon, we will have to shut our doors within two months. No Kafe Kweer in the new year, no events, no coffees and pastries, no chats with you beautiful people from all over the world.

“We’re grateful for every piece of support we can get, and to everyone who’s helped us get this far. We post this through our pride and in the knowledge that those who love our space know and see this for what it is.

We appreciate you all so much."

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