Craig Gilbert | [email protected]
Cafe Mondo is no more.
Sandwich labels roll off the collosal printer at the back of Tekarra Color Lab on Patricia Street as they have in one form or another for about 35 years.
Hundreds of logos, maybe thousands, designed by Mitch Morris and destined for the computerized cutting machine downstairs belie the downtown eatery’s new name: Harvest Food & Drink.
“It’s not the new cannabis store, Harvest Moon,” printmaster general Hugh Lecky explains, although they did those vinyl window treatments for the future 420 store at the other end of the block, too. “It’s quite interesting that they came up with the same name, and they’ll be side-by-side. I asked, ‘are these (stickers) going to be for chocolates?’”
This way or that, the press still has the real news in this town. Last month part of that story was Tekarra winning the Customer Service Award at the 2018 Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce Ambassador and Business Awards.
Why did this happen.
“Because these guys like what they do, is the big answer,” Lecky said. “They like what they do and it shows. They have a good sense of humour.”
The shop still sells and prints from 35mm film, although at a glacial trickle of peak volume. Once the star of the show, the film processor, about two-thirds the size of a commercial Xerox machine, now occupies a tight and inconspicuous corner between the storefront and the basement. It develops less film in an entire season than Tekarra used to in a single day.
“Every time we came upstairs we were carrying a basket of film.”
The new building next to Servus is where it all started in 1982. The parents of Troy Davis, who has worked at Tekarra for 30 years himself, owned the building, and cut out some space for them to try their hand at photo finishing. They’ve been in their current location since 1985.
“It was interesting for the first couple of years,” Lecky recalls. “It was a tiny space and we really struggled. This place came open, and we moved in here with bigger equipment.”
A generation for the old film machines lasted about seven years. The raised floor at the back of the shop where the larger printers now reign allowed room for fluid lines to run from the equipment to “huge” tanks in the back.
The Fitzhugh’s ancestor, the Jasper Booster, used to create its pages downstairs. Tekarra uses some of that space as a workroom now. On this day, Matt Quiring cuts away excess backing from a winter walking safety sign for Parks Canada, likely to appear in a trailhead kiosk.
“We add new materials to the mix, for example, but it all still involves printing,” Lecky said. “They say the print world is going to disappear, but we seem to have a newer application each week for it. It’ll disappear in certain respects. You’ll see brochures have gone, for example, everything is online, online booking. But people still need to get the word out.
“We do a lot of menus.”
Chamber general manager Pattie Pavlov said like the tiny sandwich stickers rolling off that colossal printer, it's the little things that make Tekarra stand out.
"There is something very special about the relationships that build between businesses and their customers," she said. "Tekarra thinks of everything – especially those details you don’t remember or think you should. Attention to detail should be their middle name!"
