BALTIMORE — Good service, good ambiance and most importantly---good coffee.
“They have the best coffee. Yes,” said Ayanna Fews of Lauraville, “I always check elsewhere to see if they’re serving Zeke’s Coffee, because I know it will be good. Yes.”
But it’s tough to brew coffee without water, and that’s been a challenge for Zeke’s Coffee since Christmas.
Popular Zeke's Coffee overcomes plumbing problems
At times, it seemed whatever could go wrong with their plumbing did so.
First, it was a faulty grease trap.
Then came the cracks in the cast iron pipes that flooded the kitchen and finally, major clogging tied to everything else.
“It was just one thing after another and, you know, we opened when we could and opened on a limited basis, but it’s been tough to get back on our feet,” said Steve Belschner, general manager of the café on Harford Road.
Many local businesses are always challenged by small profit margins and the month of January is always the toughest for Zeke’s anyway coming off of the holidays.
But shutting down repeatedly and intermittently forcing customers to order carry out only could have spelled disaster for the business.
“It sounds like you missed, what, 25 percent of your business maybe over that month?” we asked Belschner.
“Quite easily,” he replied, “and we have had to cut back on people’s hours due to a limited amount of service we could do. We had to cut back in the kitchen, service out front especially without being able to have seating. No bathrooms. No water, but it’s been tough.”
With what appears to be the final fix over the weekend, Zeke’s now appears to be back in business and there’s been an outpouring of support from its customers who recognize a community gem when they see one.
“I’ve been coming here for years,” said Fews, “I’ve lived here for over 20 years and was so happy when they came and I would just hate for them to go.”
