At 29 years old, Zephyr Bugelli had not yet been born when The Only Café first opened its doors on Hunter Street in downtown Peterborough and quickly became an eclectic staple in the community.
Now, as the eatery comes upon its 35-year anniversary, Zephyr and his sister Trinity Bugelli have revitalized the iconic sunflower mural that graces the exterior wall bordering the building’s patio.
“It was a prolific image for myself growing up as a kid,” says Zephyr. “We grew up looking at this and now we get to be adults remaking it and restoring it, and it’s sort of a catalyst for future people to have the same sort of experiences me and my sister did as kids.”
Over the course of three and a half decades, The Only Café has been a meeting place for many in the community, from university students to professionals, families, and, of course, many artists.
Zephyr guesses he’s been going to the café since he was about six months old.
“My mother was having me dance on tables and hang out on the patio,” he recalls. “This was where she could bring a young baby — me and my sister a year and a half later — to dinner, to essentially have a safe space to hang out and play.”
Zephyr recalls a playpen under one of the tables, and says his mom knew the café was “a good environment with good people around.”
“She knew kids could run around safe and have a lot of inspiration because the walls inside tell more than one thousand stories and the wall outside influences our joy and memories as well,” he says. “That was one of the reasons I reached out so hard to give it that revitalization — to help resolidify those memories with my sister.”
Some of Zephyr’s favourite café memories were using the pinball machine that was in the corner and playing house in the play area, dubbed the “Kiddie Playhouse,” with his sister.
According to The Only Café’s owner Jerome Ackhurst, this was always the intention: to create a place that could “accommodate and make everybody happy.”
“From draught beer people to people who like healthy food,” says Ackhurst of the clientele. “And it’s a place of romance.”
Zephyr, who is now a part-time employee of the café, says it feels like a full-circle moment for him and his sister to be redoing the mural that was first painted by Jeremy Moore more than 25 years ago.
Zephyr explains that the two weeks spent repainting weren’t always easy, with such a large canvas.
“The hardest part was the scraping of the old crack of paint that was left on the walls, and then we went into blocking off colours like the big blues and yellows,” Zephyr says. “We wouldn’t be able to do it without my sister’s amazing understanding of colour theory and her techniques.”
While Zephyr is a sculptor and set designer, he says his sister is the more “refined painter,” though neither artist has taken on a project of this magnitude before.
“That’s a much different medium compared to this,” Zephyr says about doing theatre backdrops and movie sets. “Coming into the canvas of brick was definitely something I had to change my mentality towards, especially because I didn’t want to use spray paint because it’s very toxic and it’s a pollutant. Using exterior paint has given us the familiarity of using a brush and roller.”
“There were definitely obstacles in the way in terms of confidence, but as soon as we got that canvas ready and it was scraped and we were putting the first paint on, we realized it’s not so different.”
The sunflower mural was the first project Zephyr has taken on for his new business, Zeph Studios. Through the business, he will be creating murals and taking on custom art projects around Peterborough. Kicking off the business working on a project with his sister in a place that means so much to both of them, he says, was an “excellent” experience.
“It’s brought up a lot of old joyous memories that we used to share,” he says. “We grew up making art together and this is just another giant canvas for us to share and that makes things feel absolutely amazing.”
“It’s absolutely fascinating to see this process,” adds Ackhurst. “It’s just very exciting and it’s going to brighten up the neighbourhood.”
The Only Café will be celebrating 35 years of building community with a party later in the summer, which will include a full celebration of the mural revitalization. It will also see a revitalized patio with repainted furniture and garden areas cleaned up following damage from the spring ice storm.
“The Only Café is a point of community, and I do believe that’s what has kept this place alive for so long,” Zephyr says. “It’s a place for cinematographers, painters, sculptors, writers, photographers, and hippies — it’s a point of community.
“If I can help an everlasting place last even a little but longer, that’s all I would like. I want to help my hometown be the place I remember it to be. I want people to take away that inspiration with them, and see the next generation of young Peterboroughians take away the same things we did.”
