‘Capitalism sucks’: Beloved downtown Victoria bakery closes its doors for good

Just four months after its critically acclaimed sister restaurant, Agrius, closed its doors for good, Fol Epi announced they are shutting down their Yates Street location. 

The organic bakery opened its ‘dockside’ location in 2009 and soon after expanded into their downtown location at 732 Yates Street.

The name Fol Epi translates to crazy wheat head, a name fit to pay homage to French baking traditions and the bakery’s love of wild yeast cultures.

On Monday, May 8th, the Victoria-based bakers announced on their social media accounts that they’d soon be returning to their roots at their dockside location at 398 Harbour Road. There, they have promised to do what they did when they began, focussing on bread production for wholesale distribution.

“We stacked up a lot of debt getting through covid and now it’s time to pay it back and the economy is not as strong as we had all hoped,” said Cliff Leir, owner of Fol Epi.  

“More and more people are on limited budgets, it’s a tough time doing business.”

“Capitalism sucks,” he added. 

In their closing announcement, Leir expressed his heartfelt gratitude toward all staff and every customer who’s come through the doors. He set out to “create something special that will leave a lasting legacy within our industry, in Victoria and beyond,” and he did just that.

The space will soon be taken over by another restaurant of similar style, but what it is exactly is still unknown at this time. 

“We know that the next iteration of 732 Yates Street is going to be special,” said Leir.

Related:

• Another Victoria restaurant has announced it is closing this month

“Our staff are being supported in this transition, but we ask that you treat this closure with care and compassion when interacting with staff this coming week.”

Fol Epi on Yates Street will be closing its doors officially after their Sunday service on May 14th.

“Thank you again, Victoria,” said Leir. “We are so proud of what we have achieved at Yates and we hope you will continue to support local, organic and sustainable food systems through Fol Epi at Dockside.”