Great big sad face -- The Collective is closed

Lovers of coffee and art in Tulsa likely know of The Collective, a great cafe/bar in town across the street from the University of Tulsa. I was very, very sad to discover this in a MySpace bulletin from them:

"Tulsa—We must inform you that as of Monday, April 6th, The Collective is closing indefinitely. We have been struggling against the downturn in the economy for a few months now. With expenses escalating, and an extremely high rent payment, we were unable to continue serving you. After extended negotiations with our Landlord in an attempt to purchase the building, we could not come to an amenable agreement that benefited both parties. We hope you enjoyed your patronage here, and we hope that we were able to bring some comfort and happiness into your lives. We will continue to try to serve Tulsa in the capacities that we can in the future. Comments and concerns can be sent to thecollectivetulsa@gmail.com. As always we will try to respond promptly and honestly.It is important to say that our closing is not due to a lack of support from this community. Word of mouth, news outlets and return customers helped us to be more successful than most businesses starting out. We thank you for your continued patronage. Everyone would like to think that they made a positive change on their environment. We would like to think that The Collective created a community atmosphere and arts-based business that hadn’t previously existed in this location. Thank you for making this possible for us, and thank you for the opportunity to serve you. We are deeply saddened by this turn of events, and if nothing else, please continue to support locally owned, Tulsa friendly businesses for they are the lifeblood of our community.

The Collective Team"

This great venue was a wonderful friend to the Tulsa Craft Mafia. It was the site of our monthly meetings (we held one there just this Sunday), offered up space for Swap-O-Rama-Rama, and hosted monthly art exhibitions -- including one for us the back in December. I also greatly enjoyed lunching there from time to time or sipping one of their fantastic mochas. Losing The Collective will leave a void in the community, and I genuinely hope Colleen and her crew can reopen in some fashion somewhere else very soon.

For fellow mourners in need of a lunch or caffeine fix, I recommend Coffee House on Cherry Street (friendly staff, excellent food and drink, my favorite) or Shades of Brown (tasty coffee, local art for sale, the location of Grey and my first date). The vibes are different, but they are both great, locally owned establishments in the area.