“Our plan was we were going to give the menu a facelift, which is what we’ve done. We were going to order new furniture for the dining room,” she said, adding that because of the slowdown in business, the couple have had more time to figure out how to move forward once the café can fully reopen.

“Our budgets have been reallocated because, obviously, we’re not hitting the sales targets that we had anticipated.”

The largest expense for Robusta right now, just as it is for many businesses, is the lease. Davidson said the café’s landlord, the Tricar group, has been helpful during this time.

While there may be money in the short-term to pay the rent, Davidson said the problem is what will come in the months to follow.

“We’ve been able to pay our rent, but it’s one of those things where it’s like, 'OK, how many months is this going to go on?'” she said.

“April came along and I was like, ‘OK, we’re good for April.’ It hurts, but we can do it. OK, well then May’s going to come around and then June, and it’s hard to say because we don’t have an end in sight.”

Speaking with the Mercury Tribune earlier this week, Marty Williams, executive director of the Downtown Guelph Business Association, said a lack of funds to pay the rent is the real killer for small businesses right now.

On Thursday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the federal government will help cover the next three months rent — for April, May and June — by providing forgivable loans to commercial landlords. Many of the details of the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance are still to be worked out with provinces, which have jurisdiction over property owner-tenant relationships.

Davidson said if shutdowns remain in place for much longer, “we are definitely going to need to tap into that.

“It’s hard to say because I can drain all our resources paying for rent over the next few months, but then when we do come back to opening up, we need operating cash to be able to order the inventory and pay your staff,” she said.

“Yeah, I can pay (the rent), but if I pay this and don’t use that benefit, is it going to put me into a situation where I can’t actually afford to reopen our dining room?”

— with files from the Toronto Star