‘Anti-Capitalist’ Cafe in Toronto Closes After Just One Year

In Toronto, Ontario, a cafe and coffee shop that styled itself as “anti-capitalist” and encouraged customers to simply “pay what you can” will be going out of business at the end of the month.

According to the New York Post, the cafe, simply named “The Anarchist,” opened in March 2022 and will close its doors on May 30th. In a statement, the cafe’s owner Gabriel Sims-Fewer blamed its downfall on a “lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources.”

While the cafe did charge standard prices for espresso and tea, as well as breakfast pastries, its main draw was to offer drip coffee to customers at any price they could afford. The public was also allowed to freely use the restroom and congregate in the storefront without making a purchase.

Described by Sims-Fewer as an “anti-capitalist café, shop and radical community space on stolen land,” the business drew mockery from conservatives and criticism from liberals, with the latter citing the high prices for everything else at the shop.

But despite the cafe shutting down, Sims-Fewer falsely described it as “a huge success,” claiming that his endeavor proved capable of “living and working in ways that don’t enthusiastically embrace the pure misanthropy of Capitalism.”

“Unfortunately, the lack of generational wealth/seed capital from ethically bankrupt sources left me unable to weather the quiet winter season, or to grow in the ways needed to be sustainable longer-term,” Sims-Fewer said in his statement on The Anarchist website, before ending in a tirade of profanity: “F*** the rich. F*** the police. F*** the state. F*** the colonial death camp we call ‘Canada.’”