More on the closing of Continuum Coffee and Continuum Cycles

As we reported earlier this month, Continuum Cycles and Continuum Coffee have closed on Avenue B. We caught up with Continuum owner Jeff Underwood for more about what happened.

The coffee shop opened shortly before Sandy hit last October, and Underwood had a difficult time recovering from the storm damage. (An unresponsive landlord apparently didn't help.)

"I had taken all of my funds and put it into the cafe last year. Not only did our whole basement flood with sewage and salt water, destroying my stock for the cafe and bike shop, we also didn't have phone service or stable Internet service for over three months," he said via email. "This kept us from running credit cards, which is 80 percent of our sales."

Business lagged post-Sandy, and he wasn't able to get ahead of the mounting bills as the year continued.

For now, Underwood said that he plans to regroup over the coming months, with the expectation of reopening a shop somewhere in the neighborhood in the spring.

"I'm actually very excited about taking the winter off to look for the perfect space. I also do dog rescue and training, which I love, so this will give me time to take on more clients and work with more dogs in need," he said. "As for bicycles, I will still take on clients, but obviously at a smaller scale. My goal is to revamp my website for e-commerce, so that we can reach more folks.

"It has been a bittersweet couple of weeks. Closing was a bit hard but the love that people are showing is blowing us away."

Previously on EV Grieve:
Out and About in the East Village with Jeff Underwood

Reader photo from Nov. 17