What happened to the Mountain café?
It’s a question I am still often asked, even six years after its closure.
In light of recent events in Aviemore, I have again been subjected to opinions, gossip & nasty speculation.
Mainly about why, when & how I went about closing my very loved café.
I have to be honest, it has reopened a few old wounds, I thought were healed.
It will be six years this March since the Covid pandemic led us to close the doors.
I am not here to defend myself, to point fingers or create hurt.
I simply just feel ready to tell my account of how one of Scotland’s most loved cafes had to come to an end.
It is still pretty raw sharing the heartbreak, impacts & decisions that I had to make.
I am hopeful that by writing this now, I might be able to write more freely about the hilarious, ridiculous, fun times of the café days.
I hope this process might help me let go of some of the anger, shame, sadness & the million other feelings that tie me to the closing of the cafe.
It would be lovely to remember the better, prouder, successful & happier times – without the cloud of resentment or anger hanging over me.
So here goes…
The perfect storm
The honest truth is the three years before the pandemic there was a perfect storm of events. These events along with the pandemic are what led to the café’s demise.
It wasn’t just one thing but many unexpected situations that were thrown at us.
Covid was simply my breaking point & then my turning point.
When I am ready (in the future), I will share more of the details & emotions behind this story. But for now I feel I can only share the facts with a small amount of emotions creeping in when necessary.
Simple & to the point account – Here goes!
From January 2017 until March 2020, I personally tried to navigate my way through some of the biggest shitstorms of my life.
Professionally I went through some of my ultimate highs, while personally I faced some of my all-time lows.
It is really hard to make a short version of what happened, so the easiest way is to try & summarise the events.
This is a rough & summerised account of what happened
F**K you cancer!
- My husband Al diagnosed Myeloma – an incurable blood cancer
- Al’s treatment, illness & needs become our priority
- Al has two emergency stints to hospital for infections, both of these result in 4-5 nights in Raigmore hospital
- I am running on adrenaline with hospital visits, learning about Al’s illness, trying to navigate what our future might look like, keeping the cafe running
- My days are spent keeping family & friends updated, speaking with doctors, being by Al’s side, while trying to manage the cafe remotely while Al rests
Kj the Author!
- The MC cookbook is released after going to print in 2016
- Cookbook tours & public speaking events are busy (I juggle them with friends so Al can attend some or he can be with friends while I go)
So flipping grateful to you all! - London cookbook event in the Shard with other cookbook authors
F**K you again cancer!
- Al undergoes his first stem cell harvest in Edinburgh
- My Mother is diagnosed with cancer, I return to NZ for one month to be by her side
- We have to reduce our menu at the café. We serve only soup, sarnies & cakes to reduce the pressure on the team in my absence
- We advertise for more chefs, but there is no accommodation locally & it is impossible to recruit
- We lose around £1-2K income per day during this period
- I return from NZ to Scotland. Two days later Al goes into Edinburgh hospital
(3-4 weeks) for a stem cell transplant - MC cookbook hits NZ & press/radio interviews begin
- I try to juggle café, staff, Al, Mum, book demands & start to burn out
- Al’s Father dies suddenly & we do our best to support his Mother
- We receive the news the stem cell transplant didn’t work & there will be no remission from the cancer
- We are left completely devastated
My monumental mental breakdown!
- I go back to work, we start opening seven days a week again. I feel huge financial pressure to get us back on track. I also feel huge guilt that I have not been there for my team. The cafe is not running as well as I want & I feel torn
- I work stupidly long hours, probably as a way of coping. Working hard is a way of ignoring what lies ahead with Al’s health & that life will never be the same again
- I am exhausted, broken & stressed, my amazing team starts to tell me they are concerned about my mental health. I ignore them & keep pushing myself
- One morning during a busy service it suddenly hits me how unwell I have become, I cannot hold myself together anymore
- Al is with his Mother. I am alone & I find myself sat in a layby calling NHS24 begging for help. I manage to drive home with the promise a doctor will be at home waiting for me. They are & they are amazing
- I am so ill I am almost sectioned. It takes me 1 month to leave the house again
- I am going to be off work for a couple of months at least
- We have to close the café 1-2 days per week so the team can have days off. I worry constantly about burning them out & losing them
- Al has to be the person on the end of the phone & goes into the café as often as he can
- We are now losing about 10-15K turnover per week.
- We are building debt & I feel huge pressure to get well
- Staff costs have been running at about 50% for 6-8 months
- Customers are unhappy about the reduced menus & the closed days
We receive a lot of scrutiny & unpleasant comments. But I will not reduce the standard or completely burn the team out - We are now in about 20-30K debt
- I start a staged return while going through therapy & under the supervision of a mental health nurse
- I am quite quickly back to 4 days a week working to get the café back to 7 days open
Cancer you really are a dick!
- Al’s Mum begins to feel unwell
- Al has been with her for a week & gets her to the doctor.
- Ann is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She dies within one day of diagnosis
- I rush to Gifford to be with Al, feeling guilty that once again, I have been so focused on the cafe, that I have missed out on being there for him & his mother.
- We are back to closing a day a week & offering reduced menus
- Family arrives from afar, we have a lovely send off, the reality of what is to come hits home. We have a house full of things to sort & Al is ill, tired & heartbroken
- We remain closed a day a week I spend my days off driving to help Al sort the house each week
Stem cell transplant here we go again…
- We prepare for a second stem cell harvest & transplant in Edinburgh (4 weeks)
- Al’s brother is a godsend & comes from NZ to support us while Al is in hospital. We continue to sort the house between hospital visits.
- Al gets a bad infection & ends up back in Edinburgh hospital for longer
- We get him home, his drugs stop working, new drugs started
- Slow recovery after transplant, a lot of nausea & fatigue
- Al start trial drugs – 3rd option, we are told only one other option left
- The café wins three huge awards, Claire, Laura & I paint the town red in London
- James Martin TV show, cooking with Nick Nairn for tour of Highlands series
- We learn the stem cell doesn’t work again
- The 3rd option of drugs start to work
Getting the cafe back on track…
- I continue book festivals around Scotland to cook & speak at
- Al has to put a big chunk of his own personal money into the business to help me out. We use some of our own savings to invest into Merch like cups, t-shirts, aprons, travel cups, to start making back the income we have lost
- The overheads of the café, reduced income & huge staff costs are now really crippling us
- We get back to 7 days a week, we start to build the café back up, Al is far more stable on the new drugs
- Myself & the team are working our ass’s off trying to get us back on track
- We plan for an epic busy summer to get ourselves back on our feet
- I have now put all my own personal money back into the café to keep our heads above water
- We are reliant on a busy summer, we know we can get it back on track
- I have no savings left & owe Al a huge chunk of money
COVID happens
- Yep, the dreaded pandemic rears its ugly head!
- We close the doors
- We called a full team meeting & all I can remember saying is please don’t worry you will all get your wages; we will do everything we can to look after you Hopefully this will be short lived (ha little did I know)
- Overnight all income through the café doors ends & we are in the shit big time
- We have VAT due, PAYE due, wages due & our suppliers bills are due with bugger all in the bank.
- Myself, Claire, Lisa & friends help me package up all our fresh foods, cakes & ingredients. We do for-sale tables in the car park. We get a few hundred quid but at least we don’t put too much food in the bin
- We use our 10K overdraft in no time at all
- The realisation hits me pretty quickly we are seriously in the shit!
- I am sole trader & if we go under, I could lose our house/everything we have worked so hard for
- I am determined not to f**k over our incredible team & all the suppliers I have spent years building relationships with
- I agree payment plans with our local suppliers & am upfront about the situation
- I take all our merch home & start mail orders through our website
- Our spare room becomes the post & packaging room, its total chaos, hours are spent queuing at the post office
- I am freaking out about bringing Covid into the house with Al’s weakened immune system while he still undergoes chemo
- Al spends most of the days seeking advice, applying for grants, negotiating with our landlords, working with Lisa online on how we can pay our debts
- We have meetings online with our team as much as possible, but there are no signs of lockdown lifting & the pandemic seems to be getting worse
- Everyone is offering to help in anyway, but there is nothing they can do
- The government’s furlough scheme helps but we still have to make up the 20% & then 40% of the wages.
- We take out a bounce back loan of 50K to help pay the team, pay the rent, a couple of bills & are left with bugger all
- We still have supplier’s bills to pay around 30K
- We take the government VAT deferral & arrange staggered payments for later dates
We get no grants or support…
- At this point all the grants we have applied for are turned down. Either because we didn’t fit in the criteria perfectly or because we sublet (from the shop our mid landlord who rents from the main landlord).
We pay our rates directly to the mid landlord who then pays the rates for the whole building. Grants are only available to rate payers; the mid landlord receives the grants for his own businesses & we receive nothing.
We start to try & negotiate getting a share of the grants from the mid landlord & it starts to get tense - Our mid landlord offers to build a coffee hut in the carpark.
- I am hesitant because I know the costs of running electric in the café to bake or prep etc. I also know we cannot sell enough coffee to even cover costs.
- The idea of using any electricity in the café is a no go!
Cooking from the house begins…
- I decided to start baking from the house. I take everything I need from the café. Our kitchen at home suddenly becomes a commercial kitchen within a week
- I cook/bake all day & then every night, I sit taking orders through Facebook & on emails. We offer click & collect cream teas & baking from our doorstep. While I do this Al works in our second spare room which is now a makeshift office
- I started to make slices & cookies for online posting. Al takes over our website creating an online shop with a range of slices & cookies
- We are exhausted & our café baker offers to join “our bubble” to help, it’s a huge relief & she brings her coffee machine hurray!
An ending with a bloody bad taste in my mouth…
- We are left totally gutted & things become very tense with the mid landlord now, it is clear the grants are not going to be shared like the rates payments are. We understand that they have businesses to run too, but the promises are empty promises, we are left devastated & disappointed
- I start to think about when the lockdown is lifted, the debts we now have, what if there is a second lockdown (which happens)
- I mull over that the building costs us a fortune with not only the day to day running costs, but also keeping the building maintained. We have big issues with the plumbing not being fit for purpose, the electrics & wiring are an ongoing issue. I am not sure I have the energy to keep fighting for help when the roof leaks again. I have spent 15 years painting & repairing the carpark fences, doing the gardens & improving someone else’s building.
- What many do not see is that you are paying rent for two floors, one is the café & the other above is four rooms & a bathroom. I did not feel happy about using the rooms as rentals for our team. The idea of three letting bedrooms upstairs with no correct fire escape was not something I was prepared to risk. So we used it for storage & an office.
- We also still don’t have a proper lease because the main landlord & mid landlord are mates. All leases we have been given, our solicitor tells us not to sign. If we are to try to put a legal lease together ourselves it will likely cost thousands & it’s likely we will not be able to come to an agreement anyway.
- We are only given a three-year verbal lease at a time, which makes me feel twitchy with the current circumstances. In the past I have tried to get a 10-year lease & this has been shot down.
- We start to talk about not returning the café & what that would mean
- As soon as we start this chat with both landlords, we are treated appallingly. There is no emotional support or understanding to the past couple of years. It is clear they are not interested in building to continue a future relationship & that is only a monetary transaction to them.
- We are told we are now going to be charged full rent including back rent for the period gone if we make that decision. It is made clear there is no going back.
- I am totally enraged, after 15 years of improving a building that is not mine, treating it like it was my own place, always paying my rent, rates & bringing a lot of custom into the building this is what it has come to.
- I am done, this is the point of no return! I tell Al I would rather be dead than give them anymore of our money.
- The overheads in the café are only viable with it being run at 100% & with the past couple of years I am fearful of what will come next!
- We give our notice. Because we have no formal lease (another dodgy & long story there!) We legally have to pay rent for the rest of the year (5-6 months rent) . It’s understandable, it’s gutting, but it is our legal obligation, we don’t fight it. In our heads we hope they will relet it soon & this might mean they waive it
Doing the best we can for the team
- We have to make the hardest decision of all. We have to make redundancies & we have to tell our team, who are like family to us, that the café is closing permanently. Many of these legends have dedicated large amounts of time, emotion & skill to my business, to have to say over a video call that we have to let them go was so impersonal, so not how I would ever run my business & I am still struggling with it now
- The process of redundancy has a long-drawn-out 3 step timeline of communication. And rightly so. The team deserves to be treated with respect & our honesty, we do the best we can under the circumstances. We have many sleepless nights & making 17 redundancies is one of the worst things, I hope I will ever go through.
- All team members that are due redundancies get their pay outs; we borrow more money against the house to do this
- All the 20 employees get all their holiday pay to date and any other benefits owed
- I have heard so many stories & have been verbally abused, that I did not treat our team well & ripped people off. This is untrue. There are things I would do differently for sure. But this is more on a communication level than financial level. We did right by our team, the best we could while dealing with a sinking ship.
Onward… Upward…
- Al takes legal advice & we make a decision to copyright “The Mountain Café Aviemore” name. This is to protect the cookbook title & our name. We feel really strongly that if we are leaving after 16 years with nothing but debts, no one is having the name that I have worked so hard for.
- I take three remaining MC employees & un-furlough all of them. We are honest & tell them we may not last. But they are willing to stick with me.
- One helps me bake & cook; one does online packaging & the other runs the deliveries. Al is now trapped in the upstairs of our house because of his weakened immune system. We do six months from our house our record is posting out 2,000 slices of millionaire’s shortbread in a month
- We deliver food all over the strath. We offer click & collect from our house doorstep. We put on burger dinners with click & collect.
- We sell off all our MC merch online
- We pay all our suppliers’ debts & start to pay into our loans
- However, this is now taking a massive toll on both mine & Al’s mental health. We no longer have a home. The only part of the house that is ours is our bedroom & the upstairs bathroom. We even have a marquee tent over our outside decking as a makeshift prep area
The final F**K you…
- The café gets new tenants & our landlord receives double rent for 3 months! Even though they get new tenants they take our rent too…
Bothy Bakery is born…
- After 7 months of cooking from our house we are offered an industrial unit in Achnagonalin. Our new & amazing landlords, Mike & Shirley give us a month’s free rent to get set up
- We receive a pivotal grant that is a huge relief
- Sarah starts a crowdfunder campaign in which we receive enough to buy an espresso machine, our first bread oven & a delivery e-cargo bike, it starts to feel like we are turning a corner. I will forever be indebted to all who supported us financially & emotionally.
Lessons Learned
Get an airtight lease not an agreement on a napkin (18 years ago I was just a young & naïve, passionate chef not a business woman).
Don’t expect others to treat you how you would treat them.
Have a watertight plan of who is responsible for maintaining what – when leasing any place. Communication, openness & honesty is key right from the start. But it must be from both sides.
Build your business so you have exit plan options in place.
Build a business that is not entirely reliant on just you! (This is something I am still bloody awful at but I am a work in progress) It’s tough when you are so passionate about what you do.
Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity!
Don’t over extend yourself financially.
We now cook out of a garage in an industrial estate & people still travel for miles for our food.
Because we have smaller overheads & employ less people
We are open four days a week.
We all have 2 days off a week.
We have a team prep day that we are not open for
We have 36 days a year holidays which we close down for
We are able to close on a Sunday so the team can have a day off with partners
Life is way more sustainable & enjoyable
I can now pay better wages to my small team
I have the time to put into our team & I have my own personal development time, while supporting the team’s development.
The main down side I face now is the 3 or 4am starts. It is tough because I miss out on social time with friends & Al with having to go to bed so early. Hospitality is brutal for missing out on important events with family & friends. But being a bakery is on a whole different level.
My 2026-2027 aims are to keep growing & to start paying myself a proper salary. I am currently on less than minimum wage. But we are only 5 years into the bakery & we started with huge debt, so baby steps!
The thing I am most proud of is we didn’t go bankrupt & we continue to get our feet on the ground each day. I would rather it be this way than be like others who are morally bankrupt.
