On her blog and in email to supporters, Mabel's owner Cait Smith has announced that her ground-breaking and widely imitated knitting cafe will be closing within the next week or so:
I promise you that we tried very hard to prevent this sad turn - a number of factors have made this decision inevitable, including a saturated market in Portland and more crafters shopping online. ...
Starting this Sunday - August 12th - we will be having a storewide liquidation. All inventory will be 30% off, and we expect things to move quickly. We will open from 10AM - 6PM for the first two days, and will close at 4PM for the remaining 4 or 5 days.
On a happier note, I will be starting a new business in the same location, and many familiar faces will be right there with me. I hope you will all stop by at the end of August to check out our new
and expanded coffee house, complete with a children's area, free wi-fi, delicious coffee, bagels, treats, milkshakes.. ..all the good stuff. We hope to carry all of the coziness of Mabel's along with us.
The word is the new place will be called the Tandem Cafe and that most of the staff will be staying on. I was a customer of Mabel's literally from day one and taught beginning knitting there for a while. When I taught there it was at a time when we really needed the work, and I'll always be grateful for that.
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