Hard times Café Frischling is closing its doors
Bonn · Sisters Vanessa Dech and Julia Lang see no long-term prospects for their family café on Klufterstraße.
The news that Café Frischling is closing for good will hit families especially hard. “Corona has unfortunately meant the end for us and we will have to close,” announced the owners, twin sisters Vanessa Dech and Julia Lang, on Facebook. The pair had opened the café together in Kessenich four years ago, followed by the move to Friesdorf a year ago. On Sunday, fans both young and old had another chance to say goodbye at a flea market to sell off stock of the family café.
Already at 10.30am, half an hour before the official opening, a queue had formed outside along Klufterstraße. Those who made it into the café - the number of visitors was limited - were spoilt for choice. Seating, tables and toys, as well as electrical and kitchen appliances were on sale. Holding his Dad’s hand, two-year-old Mattheo was drawn past the ball bath, a changing table and an indoor seesaw to a speedy tricycle. “My wife benefited more from the mother-and-child cafés than I did,” admitted father Marco Walbröl. Nevertheless, he feels the closure of the cafe is a loss because there are a lack of similar offerings in the vicinity. “When the café was still in Kessenich, I often went there with friends,” recalled Mattheo's mother Friederike. Daniela McMechan and her daughters (one and three years old) were also frequent visitors to Café Frischling. She will miss the café “because it was a good place to meet even with small children.”
Midwife Theresa Henke came on the day to look for little things and to support her friends Lang and Dech. “There was no other place here where mothers with small children could go,” she noted, “unless they wanted to sit on a park bench.” For exactly this reason Café Frischling was a place for exchange, for getting to know others and also for learning. “Here, mothers could share information about issues that were important to them and sometimes even help each other out,” said Henke.
“Nevertheless, a line has had to be drawn, “as there are no prospects for the project in the foreseeable future,” says Dech, who has two children herself. “Of course there is always a lot of heart and soul involved when you take on something like this and set it up.” But a business cannot exist without generating turnover and so the decision was made to give up. “Even if the catering trade can perhaps reopen in the next few weeks under certain conditions, we will not be able to keep to social distancing regulations here with our approach,” predicted Dech.
(Original text: Petra Reuter, Translation: Caroline Kusch)
