What Happened To The Cafe At The Train Station?

Business was too slow for cafe owner Kirk Knutson. That's the reason he is saying he shut down the now vacant train station cafe he ran under the name El Capitan Coffee Company, located inside the Suisun-Fairfield Amtrak Station.

“I left because I wasn’t making any money there,” he said.

Knutson said he was concerned about the slow traffic in the area before he moved to the café. He had a coffee stand in Suisun City at 333 Sunset Aveune that he closed down after a opened across the street from him. He was operating his business in Woodland when he got a call from the City of Suisun, that was interested in having him take the space at the train station.

“I knew it was too slow from the get go,” he said. “I told them ‘no’ three times, but they made an offer to me to get me to move in there. They made an incentive to me get me to move in there.”

Knutson first moved to the train station with his coffee cart in August 2006.

At that time, the city paid him $1,500 a month to keep his stand open from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and to perform janitorial duties throughout the station area, according to city officials. The city was doing construction work inside the train station’s cafe space while Knutson was working from his cart.

When construction was complete in November 2007, Knutson moved in and began paying rent.  After trying to stick it out for five years, however, he found he was losing money rather than making it.

“There were people coming through there but they weren't spending any money there,” he said.

Jason Garben, Economic Development Director, said the city did contact Knutson originally, expressing their interest in him running the café. Prior to their contacting Knutson, Greyhound was operating the café, but had since left.

“There was a desire of the city to keep (the cafe) open just because it’s a place for people who ride the train to use the restroom or to wait for the train when it’s raining,” said Garben.

Garben said he was not sure why Knutson’s business did not do well, stating that there is a couple of hundred commuters who go through the train station every day.

“I don’t know what his business model was that it didn’t work for him,” said Garben. “That’s nothing I have access to. But we’re certainly sorry to see him go."

This article has been changed from the original to correctly source where the information was coming from about payments given to Knutsen.