KITCHENER — The Berlin Bicycle Café — that quirky two-in-one, java-slinging, pedal-pushing bike shop in quaint little Belmont Village — is closing.

Saturday is the last menu-peddling day.

"It's unfortunate," owner Graham Roe said on Wednesday. "The business hasn't made itself sustainable yet and it's been almost three years. It's been a drain on family. Time to put my dreams on hold. Or park them."

Maybe the dual features of the brake-and-bake hybrid never fully caught on with customers, a few hundred of whom visited the café and full-service bike shop daily, Roe said. A smoked salmon bagel and urban roadster for sale under the same roof? The connection between yogurt parfaits and chrome fenders seemed lost in the two-wheeled translation.

"Is it a café or a bike shop or both?" asked Roe, a Waterloo resident.

"We still had people who come in who think the bikes that are on display for sale are a decoration kind of thing."

The bike shop part never geared up. When the shop opened in the winter, the cycle-selling business was a low priority. The café was a hit right off the bat, Roe said.

On this bicycle business built for two — original co-owner Kerri Krawec stepped away from the business about 18 months ago, Roe said — the café was always in the front seat.

"So the bike shop was always playing second fiddle and never got the attention to make it work," Roe said. "When the café was going really well, it was really hard to take away floor space for bikes when the café is paying the rent."

A year ago, paying the rent became as problematic as a flat tire. The café closing was announced. But a "fabulous outpouring of support" from the community helped keep it open. In recent months, the café squeaked by. But last month, it skidded out.

"It needed an influx of cash," Roe said. "The cash isn't really there."

So the closing is now days away, even if coffee is still served and bikes sold into next week. Seven or eight employees remain. They once numbered 18.

"If I had to say I missed something in our original business plan, it was underestimating the management overhead and the time that would require," Roe said. "You are running two separate businesses. When they are small, the management overhead is expensive."

Musician Tim Moher, who began the Belmont Village festival called Bestival, said the bicycle café was "my second office" and he enjoyed the café scones.

"It was more than a coffee shop and a bike repair place," Moher said on Wednesday. "It really was a point of centre for community in the village."

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Twitter: @HicksJD