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Caffe Aficionado, High-End Independent Coffee House in the CEB/Deloitte Building in Rosslyn - Closed


jondagle

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Well, we now know how this location and product were subsidized - this business (the actual coffee shop) couldn't possibly have been covering its rent. Think about it: How many hundreds of hand-pulled cups of coffee per day would you need to sell? Even 300 cups per day (which works out to about one every two minutes) is only about $1,000 in daily revenue, and they were often fairly empty.

The couple lived directly upstairs from my in-laws, for which they had the pleasure of meeting them several times throughout the last year. Sad story but I agree it explains a lot of what was really going on. I made a comment about two years ago after I went in and got a GC, I believe Don was in the shop at the time,' how in the world do they pay their rent?'

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1 hour ago, Josh Radigan said:

The couple lived directly upstairs from my in-laws, for which they had the pleasure of meeting them several times throughout the last year. Sad story but I agree it explains a lot of what was really going on. I made a comment about two years ago after I went in and got a GC, I believe Don was in the shop at the time,' how in the world do they pay their rent?'

Isn't it often difficult to tell how places make their money or what their costs might be?   I feel like I know that stuff pretty well.  I've run businesses, cut the checks, did a good number of real estate deals, reviewed the finances of endless businesses, previously reviewed the financials/revenues of businesses that had percentage rent clauses, etc. 

That thought went through my head, but I reserved comment.  Are they catering the heck out of the world.  I didn't know, ask, or was told.   Did they get some seemingly amazing sweetheart of a rental deal??   That happens.  Not all the time but it occurs.  (read old comments about Bread Line from Mark Furstenburg)   Did they get a year or more of free rent???   (think about that Ballston competition).   Were their mark ups through the roof?   Do their busy periods occur when you (any commentator any time) are never there??

All of which could be the exceptions.  Come on.  If your a coffee shop/sandwich place and you aren't busy at early hours and lunch...then its usually bye bye.   On top of that its not like they didn't have a lot of staff for a small place. 

In retrospect though, all of those exceptions noted above...it appears fraud must have fueled the store. 

Really a human pity:   Such nice folks(okay so maybe that was an act), such great products, such a nice looking place.  Tant pis.

 

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On 10/18/2017 at 8:45 PM, dcs said:

Caffe Aficionado Credit Card Fraud Suspect Pleads Guilty, by ARLnow.com  October 18, 2017 at 10:50 am.

 Saw that story.  I cannot overstate how nice both of them were yay and how stunned I was to learn of the scam.  Last time I was there Clark recognized me and by name and we chatted.  I hadn't been there for a good period and had forgotten his name ....and their products were mostly great.

Shit.  Sad story. Sad that they were charming scammers.

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On 10/18/2017 at 8:45 PM, dcs said:

Caffe Aficionado Credit Card Fraud Suspect Pleads Guilty, by ARLnow.com  October 18, 2017 at 10:50 am.

I have not found anything about the 2018 sentencing and jury trial that was supposed to take place.

Man, I'm really sorry if anyone got scammed because I was raving about this place - I guess looking back, it's almost not humanly possible to be as nice as these two appeared to be, and Caffe Aficionado was just too deeply artisan to survive in such an expensive space. Anyway, I was sure fooled, but it's also not the first time.

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On 7/9/2018 at 12:02 PM, DonRocks said:

I have not found anything about the 2018 sentencing and jury trial that was supposed to take place.

Man, I'm really sorry if anyone got scammed because I was raving about this place - I guess looking back, it's almost not humanly possible to be as nice as these two appeared to be, and Caffe Aficionado was just too deeply artisan to survive in such an expensive space. Anyway, I was sure fooled, but it's also not the first time.

The wheels of justice do indeed turn slowly....

Former Rosslyn coffee shop owner sentenced to prison in credit card fraud scheme, by Jo DeVoe, April 6, 2023, on arlnow.com.

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