Community pours support into Deerhead Cafe after family's financial plea; record Saturday traffic follows

Deerhead Cafe in Greenview Industrial is still catching its breath after a week of extraordinary community support following the family's public plea for help keeping the doors open.

Jean Kim and her husband Jeoungho "Oppa" Kim, who took over the cafe in 2008, launched a GoFundMe campaign to help pay off debts accumulated since the COVID-19 pandemic. The family had struggled financially for six years—the restaurant has been a staple of the neighbourhood since the 1950s. When the campaign was shared on social media, donations and customers came pouring in.

On Saturday, the restaurant saw its highest traffic since the Kims took over 18 years ago. The GoFundMe raised nearly $10,000, and some customers donated in person as well. Around 30 per cent of the influx of new patronage came from people who heard about the cafe from headlines and social media posts over the previous week and a half. But 70 per cent were returning customers—some regulars, some with memories from years ago—many of whom didn't realize how much the business was struggling.

"We're very blessed and grateful for all the support that the community has really poured onto us," said Kelly Kim, the Kims' daughter. "We were incredibly impressed and surprised with how much people are still wanting to come down."

Many of the regulars told the family the cafe was irreplaceable in their lives. "A lot of these regulars don't have anywhere else to go. That's all we've been hearing is, 'If you guys are not here, I don't know where else to go. I don't know where else to eat,'" Kelly Kim said. Her parents had cultivated deep relationships with their customers over the years, creating a space where lonely regulars felt like family, especially during holidays.

"When you go to Denny's or when you go to McDonald's, you don't get that type of small town feel of people knowing people, and people wanting to care about other people," Kelly Kim said.

The Greenview Industrial Business Improvement Area played a key role, facilitating community connections and promoting the restaurant on social media. Blooming Bee Gardening, founded by Jade Patterson, donated planters to spruce up Deerhead's entryway after learning about the situation from the BIA's posts. "It goes to show that the hard work and effort that they put in over the years is really paying off," Kelly Kim said.