03-04-2025
Employees close Interval Coffee after going unpaid for weeks. The owner plans to reopen
After going weeks without being paid, Interval Coffee employees closed the coffee shop's Bay View and East Side locations. The shops could reopen when the owner returns from a trip abroad.
Signs appeared on the doors of both locations on March 28 stating that the cafes were closed and employees were not being paid. The signs also shared employee Venmo accounts and Instagram pages, asking the public to support them.
Ashley Pappalardo, a barista trainer at Interval, said staff received their last paycheck on March 7 and their March 21 paycheck never came.
"I think we are all in shock," she said.
Employees decided to close the coffee shop a week after missing their paycheck. Pappalardo said the door signs were posted to let customers know Interval would be closed temporarily, but they were not intended to imply that Interval would be closed permanently.
She said they were waiting to learn more information from the owner.
Owner Ryan Hoban told the Journal Sentinel via email that he was in Honduras sourcing coffee. He said the cafes are closed while he is out of the country, but he plans to reopen them once he returns.
PRF Honduras, a coffee sourcing trip in Honduras on March 27 and 28, listed Hoban as an attendee, promoting his other business, Neighborly Coffee subscription.
Pappalardo said that some employees have moved on, especially those who rely on Interval for a majority of their income. But Pappalardo, who currently works for the company part time, said she would return if the payment issue was resolved and changes were made to ensure it didn't happen again.
"Most of us work there for the people who work there. All of my best friends that I've made since I've moved back to Milwaukee after school have been through the Interval community," she said. "I can't speak for everyone, but many of us do hope that Interval reopens. This is an unfortunate moment, regardless."
Aside from the latest incident, public records show that Interval Coffee has had a slew of financial troubles in the last few years.
The departments of Revenue and Workforce Development have filed a total of 37 complaints against Interval Inc. since 2019 for tax delinquency, according to Wisconsin court records.
The complaints prior to 2024 have been satisfied, but the two state entities have filed 15 complaints since March 2024, totaling more than $75,000 in delinquencies that have not been satisfied, according to records.
The Department of Workforce Development additionally had filed six cases against Hoban for tax delinquencies on unemployment compensation from 2021 to 2023. He satisfied all that debt, totaling $18,616, as of July 2024.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Employees close Interval Coffee after going unpaid for weeks
