Seven Shores, the beloved café on Regina Street in uptown Waterloo, recently celebrated a decade under its current ownership.

The café is a self-stated “simple, ethical and relational business,” serving breakfast, lunch and baked goods. Aside from serving a menu that uses locally sourced ingredients and comes from ethical suppliers, the café is also widely known for its welcoming atmosphere, where patrons are seen working over coffee just as often as they’re seen connecting with friends or strangers.

“We don’t have a target market,” Bryant Whyte, one of the 10 current co-owners of the café, stated in a conversation with Imprint. He, along with a few other regulars and staff at the time, came together in 2015 to purchase the business from its previous owners. “We have university students, professionals… people from all kinds of different backgrounds and cultures. We try to be [a space] for everyone as much as possible.”

That sense of openness and care is seen even outside of the café’s menu. One regular of the café, a UW Faculty of Arts student who asked to remain anonymous, said they appreciated the large UV air purifier in the main dining area of the café, which is still running to this day. “As someone with chronic illness, the fact that they kept it even after COVID lockdowns ended means a lot to me,” as it helps decrease the chances of customers getting sick from sharing an indoor space. The student also noted the finer details that speak of its communal nature — a basket of blankets put out in the cafe during winter for customers to borrow, and sometimes a fresh copy of the Waterloo Region Record next to the water tap at the pickup counter.

Before it became the space many know and love today, Seven Shores was a fair trade business, with its name coming from the travels of founding owners, UW alum Sean and Amy Zister. They connected with artisans both local and international to sell their goods in a kind of urban market. The business started brewing the fair trade coffee it sold, then added baked goods to go with the coffee, and eventually grew into becoming a café over time.

One of the big challenges of running Seven Shores, Whyte says, was making the café sustainable and having it thrive as a communal space, both in early years when pivoting towards its current form as well as through changing times. In the beginning, the focus was on centering the dine-in experience as a full-service eatery, in contrast to its previous incarnation. Then the COVID-19 lockdown happened in 2020. “I think what really helped us through COVID was making changes when we were ready to make changes,” Whyte said. Whenever the provincial government lifted restrictions, first to allow takeout and then indoor dining, the team decided to take a few weeks to prepare rather than re-open immediately after the announcements.

As it has evolved over time, Seven Shores has also kept its strong ties with UW, aside from remaining a popular study and networking spot for students. Human Beans (@humanbeans_cafe on Instagram) is a monthly event held after-hours at the cafe featuring talks by guest speakers about “what it means to be human,” touching on diverse topics ranging from the influence of music to cybernetic literature. Whyte credits Ron Kroeker, classical studies professor at UW, with spearheading the event, and past speakers have included multiple UW faculty members, including professor emeritus of physics Robert Mann and communication arts professor Anders Bergstrom. Other current and retired faculty are also known to visit the café during business hours, and a UW graduate has also served as a staff member at one point.

Now, Seven Shores continues to be an uptown landmark, born and sustained by collaboration and community through good times and bad. “The only reason the café still exists is because we’re able to do it together,” Whyte said of the Seven Shores team and the wider community. For those looking into entrepreneurship, his advice is to “work with people that you trust — and share!” He encourages students who visit to embrace the spirit of connecting with others. In the same vein, he also encourages students to be mindful of letting others enjoy the café space. The large communal 12-seater tables are ideal for individual work, he says, which is especially important when seats at smaller tables are scarce during lunch and breakfast rush times. They’re also great places to chat up a neighbour and see what starts from a single conversation.