‘It’s a huge loss’: All locations of Adda Coffee & Tea House close for good

All four Adda Coffee & Tea House locations have closed. The owner posted a reason explaining the closure on its doors and on social media. Customers are shocked, and employees say there’s more to this story.

“To be out of a job immediately,” said Emma Tobias. “Yeah, I can’t even imagine.”

Emma Tobias showed up to her favorite coffee shop on the North Side shocked to find out its closed for good.

“Great coffee shop,” said Tobias. “It’s a huge loss.”

Meanwhile, in Shadyside, Fran Mammarelli heard what happened and has been trying to get in touch with the owner.

“This year, 10 of my clients got 10 gift cards from this store,” said Fran Mammarelli. “And I literally am so upset right now because they went to go use their gift cards. Two of them, and they can’t use them.”

In a statement, the owner of Adda said, “Sadly, we have been operating at a loss since the beginning, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.”

“He announced on our company app that the stores would be closing, around the same time he notified the public, and we haven’t heard anything since,” said Chris Gratsch.

“We were working yesterday,” said Tammy Bevilacqua. “We thought it was business as normal. And this is just as abrupt to you as it is to us. We’re all out of work now. It’s a shame.”

Tammy Bevilacqua worked in the kitchen as a manager. She’s scheduled to have surgery in February and is getting nervous about being unemployed.

“We’re fully locked out of the building,” said Bevilacqua. “All of our personal items. Everything. I have one of my surgical boots in there. My medical device is in the building with no notice.”

Adda had about 30 employees. Chris Gratsch started working at Adda in 2021. He says 14 months ago they started the process to unionize, and they just had a full staff meeting on Wednesday to tell the owner of Adda that they formed a union.

“Truly stunned,” said Gratsch. “We knew it was a possibility. For those of you who are not familiar with what a unionizing process looks like we know that that’s something that can happen. Closing stores. It is a violation of the National Labor Rights Act of 1935, but it is something that’s difficult to fight.”

Labor Attorney Josh Bloom says if retaliation is proven, which is difficult to do, the owner could be held liable for a substantial amount of damages.

“If the union or the group of employees that were involved with seeking representation, if they’re able to prove that the timing is highly suggestive that there was retaliation attempting to get union support where essentially it was the same day, within 24 hours, that they notified the company that they wish to be represented by the union and filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board. Unless the company can show that it was a mere coincidence and that the union representation petition had absolutely nothing to do with their decision to close,” said Josh Bloom. “Otherwise those employees and or that union are likely to win that case.”

Bloom also pointed out that every business owner has the right to close.

“I think it’s sad because at the end of the day the company doesn’t have to agree to anything that it doesn’t want to agree to,” said Bloom. “All the National Labor Relations Act would have required it to do was sit down with those employees. Listen to their concerns. Bargain with them. Hear what they want to be paid. Hear what the working conditions that they’re seeking. And hear what benefits they’re asking for. In my experience, if the employer comes in at good faith usually both sides walk away with something that’s mutually agreeable, and they can even be in a situation where they work together better and the companies could benefit.”

“We’re truly a family,” said Gratsch. “The fight kind of starts with proving that this wasn’t just a closure due to whatever financial reasons we like to pull out of thin air, which is hard because it does involve a full-scale audit. And as a business owner there are a lot of loopholes that people kind of try to slip through, but we’re hoping with all the community support that we have and with the oh-so-convenient timing of everything that’s happened here. We hope to be able to make a really strong case.”

Former Adda employees say they’re grateful for all the community support they’ve received.

“Every time we open our phones, there’s dozens of messages if not hundreds between our personal accounts, our union Instagram page just showing overwhelming support,” said Gratsch. “Pittsburgh is a union town. It was built on union labor, and people recognize that unions are a right that workers have. So just seeing everyone just so overwhelming and unanimously supportive it shows that we did the right thing.”

The owner of Adda, Sukanta Nag, sent Channel 11 the following statement:

“The overwhelming response to the news that we have closed Adda has been bittersweet for us. We are so grateful to know that the business and team has made such an impact in the community, yet it’s certainly not an outcome that we wanted. The decision and process to close was not easy for us.

Our final determination was solely and entirely based on the financial viability of the business. The timing has been unfortunate but we could no longer continue losing money. Our priority from the beginning was focused on serving the community and less on revenue and profit, and we certainly had hoped and planned for it to grow into a healthy, sustainable business. Sadly, we discussed closing several times in the last few years, and we held out hope that we would find a way to make the business work.  It was just not feasible.

Adda and its goals had been a project of love for eight years, in which we invested our time, resources, creative solutions, and a significant amount of our own cash investments to keep it alive. We are heartbroken and we feel a profound sense of sadness for this closure and for its impact on our staff and community. We sincerely care about the many different people who have worked to make Adda what it was over the last 8 years.  We will continue to offer our support to those employees affected by our closure.”

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