Rito’s Continental at Christies Beach reopens after owner injects life savings

The cafe has been a staple of Christies Beach for more than 30 years, but like many businesses has fallen on hard times.

Ayesha O’Neill, owner of Rito’s Continental at Christies Beach. Picture: Supplied

A Christies Beach cafe owner and single mum has been forced to empty her life savings in order to keep her business afloat.

Ayesha O’Neill, 33, owns Rito’s Cafe and Continental, a staple of the beachside suburb that has been in operation for more than 30 years, closed briefly last week.

The business owner took over the business two years ago, but has a long history with the cafe, frequenting it with her late father as a child.

Ms O’Neill said the rising cost of living had led to increased financial strain on the cafe.

“It’s been really hard to stay afloat in this financial climate,” she said.

“We’ve definitely felt the pinch of rising costs, and just the challenges that small businesses face every day.”

This came to a head in early February, when Rito’s fell behind on rent, leading to the landlord locking Ms O’Neill out of her business for almost a week, in a situation she described as “heartbreaking”.

“We were in arrears, and so then we had some tenancy issues and that led to us being closed,” Ms O’Neill said.

To get the business back up and running, she took a leap of faith and used her life savings to pay the overdue rent.

She said there was “a bit of back and forth” with the landlord, whom she described as being “patient” throughout the process.

“Every bit of my savings, every cent that I had, I used to pay the landlord back in full, plus some as a sign of goodwill,” Ms O’Neill told The Advertiser.

Rito’s has since reopened and Ms O’Neill, who balances running the cafe with raising her two children, said the community support had been overwhelming, including people sending messages and making purchases from interstate.

Ayesha O’Neill bought Rito’s from original owners Rito and Carol two years ago. Picture: Supplied

“Everyone is so glad that we’re back.”

“We’ve had people reaching out to us from Queensland, they’ve been putting orders through to pay it forward.”

“Someone bought like 20 coffees, and they said “pay it forward, don’t pay it forward, it’s up to you – They just want to support.”

To keep Rito’s going, Ms O’Neill said she would “unfortunately” have to raise prices, but is looking for ways to mitigate this.

She is considering expanding the cafe’s usage into being a meeting and exhibition area for other small businesses.

Ms O’Neill also said her suppliers had been “understanding” throughout the ordeal, and that negotiations over product prices were ongoing.