Café Bummer News

It’s been a hard time for restaurants near the University of Oregon campus.

First, we lost Barry’s Espresso and Bakery, and a pot shop moved in. Then, in March, the UO Book Store evicted Cafe Siena. A little farther away, Humble Bagel announced its closure April 13.

In addition to other changes in restaurants on Hilyard Street (like the sudden departure of Carpe Diem), Café Yumm! announced today, April 15, that its restaurant on the corner of East Broadway and Hilyard Street will close later this year because the landlord plans to demolish the restaurant to pursue development of a multistory mixed-use structure.

“After losing the Broadway lease, we immediately began to focus our resources on developing new restaurants in the Eugene area,” Mark Beauchamp, president and co-founder of Café Yumm! restaurants, said in a statement.

Café Yumm added that the closure will affect 30 employees. The restaurant will work with each employee to find a new place in another Café Yumm location, the statement said.

“Broadway has been a great facility for training food preparation, catering, menu development, and management coaching for more than a decade. Since cultivating professional growth has been a special part of that location’s history, I look forward to seeing how careers develop as the Broadway restaurant Team Members move elsewhere throughout the system,” he said.

Beauchamp added in the press release that he felt the closure would be near since there was so much development going on in the area, and he understands why the landlord would want to repurpose the real estate.

“A number of high-rises have been going up around the neighborhood in recent years, so we knew it was just a matter of time,” he said.

The company estimates that it will stop serving at the Broadway location around September 2019.

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