The London area’s very own coffee roaster, with a direct connection to Nicaraguan farms, is open again to the public.
The London area’s very own coffee roaster, with a direct connection to Nicaraguan farms, is open again to the public.
Las Chicas Del Café in St. Thomas was closed to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic, when sales slumped.
But sisters Valeria and Maria Fiallos are open again, offering fresh-roasted beans from their family farm in Nicaragua to coffee lovers here, for the first time since March 2020.
“It is great to be able to talk to people again, especially at Christmas, it is great to be able to reconnect,” Valeria said. “We have a relationship with our customers, people come into the roaster. It is nice to have that again.”
Chicas has been in business 17 years, the last seven in St. Thomas located in a stately red brick building on Talbot Street that was part of the city’s railroad infrastructure. This year, they’ll roast more than 27,000 kilograms of beans, down from nearly 32,000 in 2019, before the pandemic.
But Valeria said she’s confident the business will rebound, and reopening is part of that strategy.
“The pandemic hit when we were getting busy,” she said. “We pretty much had to close our doors but we have now reopened, people are really enjoying coming in.”
The sisters immigrated to London from Nicaragua with their family in 1987, fleeing civil war. The family still owns a coffee plantation and Chicas buys its beans from it and neighboring growers, supporting their home community.
Those growers had no government support when the pandemic hit, and have struggled.
“Here (in Canada), the government did something, we are so blessed our government helps,” Valeria said. “No one helps there.”
Through the pandemic, Chicas managed to maintain a strong presence in grocery stores such as Remark, Farm Boy, Sunripe and Metro. It also strengthened its online retailing.
That worked to keep them in business, but now they’re aiming to match pre-pandemic sales, Valeria said.
“It was a big shift for us; we started focusing more on the home consumer since more people are working from home. Some cafes we were supplying closed, they were not able to survive the shutdown,” she said.
“It has been a big challenge for us. But we are still doing batches by hand, it is how we started and how we want to do things.”
Chicas also is donating proceeds from its holiday-themed blends to schools and health clinics in Nicaragua that was hit hard by hurricanes this fall.
For downtown St. Thomas, the roaster has become an anchor tenant and destination retailer, said local chamber of commerce chief Paul Jenkins, who’s thrilled Last Chicas has reopened.
“Maria and Valeria are two of the most dynamic entrepreneurs in our community, it has become a flagship business for St. Thomas,” he said. “You go in there and smell beans that are roasting, it is an experience. It is a very cool business.”
Maria has become the chamber’s vice-chairperson, Jenkins said.