C-Street cafe closing after a year

Last edited 8:55 a.m., Dec. 30, 2020

Commercial Street's Cafe Dhibs is slated to shutter this week after a year in operation.

Colleen and Ryan Sundlie announced the Dec. 31 closure of their venture in a Dec. 26 Facebook post.

"The challenges COVID has brought to our very unique concept, in a very interesting location, are ... challenging," the post reads. "It’s been such a fun project and great practice for us if we ever decide to enlarge the concept in an ideal location and in an era better for brick-and-mortar small business."

The niche cafe’s menu centered around dates – connecting with the Sundlies’ Date Lady Inc. business also on C-Street. In November 2019, they opened Cafe Dhibs, a “micro-cafe” in 400 square feet at 918 W. Commercial St., next to Date Lady.

Dhibs is another word for molasses, which is commonly known as date syrup. The menu featured date shakes, espressos, baked goods and charcuterie trays. Founded in 2012, Date Lady makes a line of date-based products such as syrup, sugar, chocolate spread and caramel sauce.

Cafe Dhibs' space previously was home to various barbershops since the 1950s, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The Sundlies are planning to convert the building into a bake house for Date Lady's fruitcake line, according to the Facebook post.

Date Lady, at 900 W. Commercial St., earlier this year entered a deal to expand its product line to Target, according to past reporting.

Cafe Dhibs joins businesses including The Hepcat and Falstaff’s Local that have closed during the coronavirus pandemic.