Friends of Fawkes

It takes a village.

These people picked us up, protected us, and carried us forward.

There is no Fawkes without these people.

They are the Samwise Gamgees to our Frodo.

Thank you Earl. Every piece of wood, old wall torn down, new wall framed in, coat of paint, door hung, the entire Bakery, and more was all built by Earl over 2 years. The place looks warm, friendly, wise, and antique only because Earl is all of these things.

Thank you Cassandra. The other 50% of the Burnt Out Nurses Club that put out 75,000 doughnuts for the Pop Up. We would legitimately be dead of exhaustion without you. You easily deserve employee of the month for 16 straight months.

Thank you Julio, our trusty Engineer.
You went above and beyond and held our hand through meetings with the city and helped us justify how to legally build the first food establishment in 113 years in this historic building.

Thank you Ben and Alicia. You helped us clean equipment that sat in a construction zone for 2 years, helped us overcome our lost TI, kept us on path, and forced us to gear down when needed. And solved dozens of problems that came up the week of.

Thank you to the Pepin parents Komala and Peter. You guys walked us off multiple ledges (sometimes weekly), advised us, celebrated us, raged with us, and provided a safety net where we felt we no matter what we did we couldn’t fail.

Thank you to the VandenBrink parents John and Lynn for the emotional support, the unwavering belief in us, the cleaning parties, and probably buying more coffee than anyone.

Thank you Michal for taping carpets down for hours, installing the LEDs better than we ever could, coming by to regularly check on how we were doing, and keeping us from getting lost in the details.

Thank you Becca for designing the layout when we had no idea where to start and getting us through the building permits and especially deciding for us that the bar had to back the brick wall.

Thank you Anthony for advising us on codes, trades, and the general contracting process (which we had (and still have) no idea what we we’re doing with).

Thank you Bob for setting us up with the electrical equipment needed for the service upgrade and setting us up with Jim (also thank you Jim) for navigating the buildings first power upgrade in 113 years.

Thank you Don, Lois & Jeff at Encore Trucking for helping us move the 6000lb Antique Safe. You guys move the unmovable and it’s always fun having you guys around.

Thank you Matt with Thrive Electric for handing all the electrical requirements and going out of your initial scope to make sure we had everything we needed. And for getting the Beauty and the Beast chandelier up safely.

Thank you Trev with Trev’s Contracting Ltd for all the kitchen HVAC work, checking in on us, and going out of scope to help us with other odds and ends and just being a fun guy to work with.

Thank you Dave with Edwards Plumbing & Gasfitting for hammering out long days to get the plumbing ready for inspection and whistling and humming the entire time you work. Also for your family’s love of our doughnuts.

Thanks to everyone at SaveAll for working on such an old sprinkler system and doing such a great job retrofitting it when so many others were afraid to touch it.

Thanks to Yvonne at the City for helping us navigate improvement grants that allowed us to enhance the whole café beyond what we initial imagined.

Thank you to my brother Kaylan at Levr for helping us find loans and advising us on our financing. And for Deanna, Aria & Jack for hosting us for our last getaway to Vancouver before we got the doors open.

Thank you Reese for your gallery wall and for our wedding arch that you painstakingly made that adorns the gateway to the bakery. The final gallery definitely wall looks way better than the newspaper template it started as. Also for taking care of Strider while we were out.

Thank you Lorne and Tara upstairs at Carson Integrated for stepping in to help out with the power service upgrade and for the general excitement you all had for us to open. You guys are amazing neighbours.

Thank you to the Downtown Business Association for the support, exposure, and making 104th the coolest street in the city!

Thanks to all the artists upstairs that supported the Pop Up and cheered us on as we worked for years to get the place open.

Thank you Myles and Holly at Myles Belland Studios for all the amazing photos and videos back when all we had to offer was prepackaged coffee and doughnuts. Not to mention the beautiful friendships that came along with the beautiful photos.

Thank you Colleen and Jason from Colleens Chocolates for the chocolates, the advice, the perspective, and for championing our business when it was less known and growing.

Thank you to Karl, Jiri and Derek for all the advice on Coffee, new equipment, cup sizes, drink menus, and everything coffee related.

Thank you Keegan at Creative Square for all the branding, logos, graphic design, and packaging. We wanted the face of the business to be unique and beautiful and you nailed it.

Thank you to everyone who helped clean and set the place up: Reese, Colton, Faith , Victor, John, Lynn, Komala, Peter, Gabi, Greg, Mike, and more! Cleaning parties sound fun but there was so. much. dust.

Thank you Shawn Belle and Tom Gazzola at the Hello Hockey Show for hyping up our business while talking about Oilers hockey. You guys have the greatest jobs ever (let’s go Oilers!)

Thank you Riley at Bella for the collaboration and help with the kitchen processes.

Thank you Percy and Hifa for the help and resources needed to open the Pop Up.

Thank you Kate for your beautiful artwork we’re displaying in the cafe.

Thanks Chris K for thinking our cold brew would make a badass espresso martini and proving it.

Thanks Indy at Hladun and Co for backing us up legally over the years and strongly advising us not to name the place Block 1911.

Thank you to our friends at Roasti, Aspen, Deville, Bloom, Baijiu, Nabi who sell or use our coffee & doughnuts which directly helped fund our opening.

And thanks to our brand new team of Alec, Ancie, Andrew, Ariel, Ashira, Austin, Cassandra, Freya, Heidi, Keely, Louise, Makayla, Molie, Rebecca, Sarah, River & Stephanie for sticking with us during the crazy opening and 7 hour line ups out the door while we figure our operations out.

And last but not least, thank you to everyone who came to the Pop Up. Every doughnut or cup of coffee helped us build our dream Café. We promise to run this business and that the coffee and food we make within these wallpapered walls will always be made with love.

We hope to make you all proud for decades to come.

Jorel & Mikayla ❤️