Employees Launch Bid To Buy Downtown Cafe Ill Health Forces Owners To Sell Espresso Delizioso

Employees of a popular down town Spokane cafe have launched a plan to buy the business from its owners, who are retiring.

Espresso Delizioso has been in business for 14 years, the past six at 706 N. Monroe. The European-style cafe is known for its panino sandwiches, decadent desserts and specialty coffee drinks. A folksy cafe with live music every night, Espresso has been a hang-out for adults and youth alike.

That has been the vision of Robert and Katherine Shambhalla, Espresso’s owners, since opening the cafe on South Wall in 1983. Ill health has caused the Shambhallas to sell the business.

The Shambhallas are enthusiastically supporting three employees - assistant manager Micahel Martinez, 29, day supervisor Elizabeth Kercher, 20, and kitchen manager Chris Evans, 21 - in finding investors to finance a plan to take over the restaurant.

“(They) love the place,” Katherine Shambhalla said of Martinez and Kercher. “And then there’s Ev (Evans) in the kitchen who really has learned well our cooking style.”

In an appeal to the community, the Shambhallas put up a hand-written poster inside the restaurant asking for investors to help the employees finance their project.

The asking price is $125,000. Six potential investors already have expressed interest, but Katherine Shambhalla did not disclose their names.

The plan, said Martinez, is for the investors to buy the restaurant and for the employees to pay them back over time with profits. Financial forms show the restaurant was not profitable in 1996, losing $24,000 on sales of $340,000.

To make the restaurant profitable, the employees plan to expand the kitchen, increase advertising and add catering services, Martinez said.

Though none of the three has owned a restaurant, Martinez owned a business in downtown Seattle for two years.

“I know this will happen,” Martinez said. “All it needs is our young energy.”

, DataTimes