Kap’s Coffee Shop & Diner, a fixture along Albuquerque’s Route 66 corridor since 1968, will close for good on Oct. 11, after the city’s annual Balloon Fiesta ends.
Nicole Kapnison, a daughter of longtime owner Nick Kapnison who now is the operator, told the Albuquerque Journal that challenging conditions have prompted her to close.
But worsening safety conditions along Central, an area plagued by drug activity and homelessness, have made it difficult to go on, Nicole Kapnison said.
“It is no surprise that businesses along Central have suffered with the state of our city, and we are in a very difficult area. Revitalization has been promised for years and unfortunately that has not happened,” Nicole Kapnison wrote. She added that her other restaurant ventures have been helping to fund Kap’s, but it hasn’t been enough.
“The cost of doing business in the area is far too great to keep going,” she said.
The diner will be open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. until it closes.
Kap’s, at 5801 Central Ave. (aka Route 66), went up for sale in March with an asking price of $600,000.
Nick Kapnison, who died last year, acquired the former Denny’s restaurant in 1968. He first called it Sandy’s, then renamed it to Kap’s a few years later.
(Image of Kap’s Coffee Shop & Diner in Albuquerque via real-estate listing)
Godspeed…