A downtown landmark will close its doors for good Christmas Eve.
According to owner and founder Janet Kelly, she’s not willing to sell Auntie Crae’s specialty food store, and none of her family members or workers want, or are able, to take it over.
“I’m just retiring and I have no comment on it other than that and I’m closing the store,” Kelly said Sunday. “I was never going to sell the business, ever.”
Kelly confirms that certain Auntie Crea’s products will continue to be sold through other stores, although she didn’t say which ones.
“I’ll probably licence people to do some of the products.”
The store was established in 1977 in Churchill Square, but moved to its current Water Street location a decade ago.
Before being turned into the specialty foods shop, the Water Street building was a hardware store called Neyle-Sopers for nearly 100 years.
A part of the current store is now called Fishhook Neyle’s Common Room, where people are welcome to bring their own lunches and snacks or those bought at the store and socialize.
Elizabeth McRae, who the store is named after, lived from 1862 to 1927 and leased the building at 308 Water St., a document she’s believed to have signed in 1891 for a 10-year period for the sum of $650 per year.
“I was never going to sell the business ever.” - Owner and Founder Janet Kelly
Auntie Crae, Kelly’s great-aunt, was said to have fought the flames of the Great Fire with holy water and prayers as it lapped at her building.
And though it’s not nearly as storied, in recent years Kelly has had to be creative to keep her business running.
Kelly went public with her problems attracting staff and announced she’d be changing her hours as a result in 2008. She spoke on a panel called “The Disappearing Work Ethic: Fact or Fiction,” about a new generation of worker and she also recently posted a sign on plywood covering a broken picture window saying “smashed window compliments of George Street revellers,” and, below that, “Yes, we are open as usual. Auntie Crae’s.”
The store has played host to book launches and readings, and every Tuesday the “Auntie Crae’s Band” plays for the lunch crowd.
Now over 70, Kelly says it’s time to retire.
“It’s a work in progress right now.”
amorrissey@thetelegram.com
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Hi Janet ...I am ecstatic that you will soon be taking some well deserved time for yourself . Although I have only known you personally for the past 5 years I knew about you long long before that . I was a patient at the HSC some years ago and shared a room with a fantastic lady named Pearl Fewer . Those 10 days together we became good friends and I learned that she had been a foster mom to over 30 children besides raising her own family . She spoke so highly of Auntie Craes in St Phillips and how you had given some of her children jobs and how trhey had took away amazing work ethics from you when they had moved on .Sadly Pearl passed away a few years after I met her but her stories and her praise for you still ring loud .Then by becoming a part of your Walk On Water Group I saw firsthand how well you treated your customers and your employees ...I also saw you give with open heart many a cup of coffee or bread to those not so fortunate .Thank you Janet for what you have given also to me being a part of your group ...you brought together all walks of life who have formed life long bonds . I wish you good luck and an abundance of good health wherever your new journey may take you .